Businesses buy into proposal for downtown

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — After years of resistance, the idea of a business improvement district in downtown Gallup finally seems to be picking up some steam.

According to Gallup MainStreet President Brett Newberry, the group's governing board recently approved the concept of a district, in which the business and/or property owners would raise their own funds through some sort of property assessment for neighborhood improvements.

He attributes the change of heart to a growing sense among downtown businesses that they're on the verge of missing an important opportunity. City officials have offered to match whatever the business community raises dollar for dollar, and with the administration set to change hands next year, they're not sure how long that generosity might last.

"I think they feel like this is their shot at infusing a lot of money into the neighborhood," Newberry said.

But if city officials are offering a carrot, they've also threatened to use a stick. They've touted the $5 million the current administration has invested in downtown Gallup alone and reproached the neighborhood's business owners for not pulling their weight. If they wanted the public benefits to keep coming, officials have said, they'd have to start.

'Huge step'
City Manager Eric Honeyfield, one of the loudest critics of the neighborhood's business owners and boosters of a business improvement district there, welcomed MainStreet's support.

"That's a huge step," he said. "There has been a sudden shift and I am very pleased the board is more open to it."

But the city's battle is hardly won. As Newberry put it, the MainStreet board has approved only the "concept" of a business improvement district for downtown Gallup. The key step to implementing one will be convincing at least 51 percent of the neighborhood's real property owners to officially sign on.

Even that, however, will leave plenty of potentially contentious details to work out, what the district's boundaries should be, for example, how exactly the business or property owners should be assessed, and how the money they raise should be spent.

When the City Council hosted a public forum on Gallup's struggles with public intoxication, many a downtown business owner and resident lamented the loss of the police department's sub-station at the corner of Coal Avenue and Second Street. City officials said they closed it to cut the department's ballooning expenses. An increased downtown police presence, Honeyfield said, would be one option for the improvement district's revenues.

Walking the walk
Lisa Rodriguez, the owner of downtown Gallup's Light Language photo studio now in its 25th year would welcome a business improvement district, so long as the assessment weren't too much. While Rodriguez does not own the building, her landlord said he'd pass any increase on to her.

"Anything to improve the look of downtown Gallup is an important step," she said.

After some curb and gutter work and some uniform signage, what she'd really like to see is diagonal parking to bring more people downtown and wider sidewalks to get them walking the streets.

"Sidewalks bring the community closer to an understanding that we're in a tourist area and you have to get out of your car and walk," she said.

Rodriguez knows that would probably mean turning Coal at least a few blocks of it into a one-way street, preferably eastbound, and she doubts the money the improvement district could raise would be enough for that.

Funding
While neither the city nor MainStreet have even started planning an improvement district, Honeyfield would like to see it raise at least $50,000 a year and have the city match it dollar for dollar.

"You can't get much done with $100,000," said Louis Bonaguidi, whose family has owned the northeast corner of Third Street and Coal since the 1930s and now owns some dozen building across downtown Gallup. "It would probably need more than that."

Still, he likes the idea and agrees with Honeyfield that he and his neighbors can't expect the city to keep investing in the neighborhood without more private buy-in.

"You can't really expect the rest of the community to support a small district," Bonaguidi said.

Whatever an improvement district might raise, he doesn't envision widening the sidewalks so much as simply keeping them in shape. He also likes the idea of using the money to offset interest rates on bank loans for business owners upgrading their buildings.

For an example of what they'll need to do and what to expect, city and MainStreet officials are looking to Albuquerque, the only other city in the state with a business improvement district. They have a meeting with the city's improvement district officials tentatively scheduled for Oct. 20 in Albuquerque.

"The transformation of the Albuquerque downtown speaks for itself," said Honeyfield, who lived in the area in the early 1980s. Back then, he said, "downtown was not a destination you wanted to go to in the dark."

Now the neighborhood is crawling with restaurant, bar and club goers into the early hours of the morning every weekend and most weekdays.

Levying 58 cents on every $100 of property tax value, the city's improvement district started in 2001 raised more than $650,000 in 2005. It's using most of the money on safety ambassadors who help with crime prevention, a "clean team" that removes trash and washes sidewalks, and various image enhancement initiatives.

"It's really about providing extra services to a specific area over and above what they would receive otherwise," said Honeyfield.

With a new courthouse square, a renovated El Morro Theater, a series of new murals, and various other downtown improvements at the taxpayer's expense, he said, it's time for the neighborhood's businesses to step up and add the finishing touches.

"We've got the fundamentals here already ... now we just have to paint the house, as it were."