Every city has a downtown. What are you doing to make yours stand out?

In today’s competitive economy, the city of Gainesville is working hard to attract new jobs and housing to our central business district.

We can’t take credit for all of the success Gainesville has enjoyed in redeveloping the downtown area. The picturesque historic square, lakeside setting with mountain views, and easy interstate access are existing advantages. However, we have added a few innovative tools to our economic development toolbox that have changed the direction of downtown.

A Tax Allocation District (TAD) provides an incentive for investment in downtown properties that might otherwise be too expensive to redevelop. Tax increment financing has attracted game-changing projects such as Carroll Daniel Construction’s five-story corporate headquarters on Main Street and Knight Real Estate’s high-rise condos overlooking the Downtown Square. The TAD also enabled the demolition of dilapidated buildings that have now been replaced with brand new businesses, bringing more jobs downtown. 

The city also strategically invested in key properties downtown, some through partnerships with the private sector. The iconic pedestrian bridge that stretches across Jesse Jewell Parkway, connecting historic downtown and midtown, was built through such a partnership. We are requesting proposals to develop remaining parcels to match the vision established by the Downtown Gainesville Renaissance Strategic Vision and Plan, created in 2015 with the help of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at University of Georgia and extensive community participation. 

We continue to join forces with local, state and federal partners to revitalize downtown. The Hall County-Gainesville Land Bank Authority was recently created to revitalize blighted areas, taking abandoned property and turning it into a home that benefits the surrounding neighborhood. State and federal Opportunity Zones drive long-term private investment into low-income communities, and Gainesville is fortunate to have both.

A successful downtown has a healthy ecosystem, with all the parts working in synergy. New businesses bring employees who need a place to eat lunch, who shop at nearby retailers and who might want to live close to work. The city has expanded parking, built wider sidewalks and improved landscaping to make downtown more pedestrian friendly. The final connection of the Highlands to Islands Trail is under construction, which will create a seamless greenway through downtown from Lake Lanier to the Midtown Greenway and beyond to the Chicopee Mill area. The trail will connect in-town residents with the places where they work and play.

Beyond the physical connection, there is an intangible connection that is important to a downtown ecosystem. It’s the welcome, excited feeling that you get when you enter a place where you “belong.” A truly innovative economic development tool known as “placemaking” is the creation of environments where people want to invest their time. Gainesville is proud to be one of three Georgia cities selected for the Placemaking Collaborative pilot program by the Georgia Municipal Association and UGA’s Carl Vision Institute. We are learning how to transform overlooked areas, like an unsightly downtown alley, into a functional space that expresses the uniqueness of the community.

Downtown is the heart of any city, pumping economic health throughout the community. There's no doubt that Gainesville's economy is booming. Once again, Gainesville was ranked No. 3 among America's Best-Performing Small Metropolitan Areas by the Milken Institute, an economic think tank in Santa Monica, Calif. That means Gainesville has one of the best economies in the United States based on job creation, wage gains and technology growth. We are fortunate to have strong community partners that will continue to foster Gainesville’s economic prosperity.