URA examines Fairmont cafe district

By Jessica Legge
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT January 07, 2009 01:04 am

— Fairmont’s urban renewal authority examined what a cafe district could do for the city during a meeting Tuesday.
City Planner Jay Rogers, Tina Shaw from the Marion County Chamber of Commerce, and Vera Sansalone from Main Street Fairmont have held meetings with chef Brian Floyd to discuss the concept of creating a cafe district in the city.
Floyd, coordinator for the culinary arts and pastry and baking arts programs at Pierpont Community & Technical College of Fairmont State University, presented his vision to the members of the Fairmont Renaissance Authority Tuesday.
As far back as 2001 or 2002, he had been looking into the possibility of establishing a bistro — operated by culinary students — that could act as a catalyst for downtown revitalization. But for Fairmont to really achieve success, it needs to consider developing a cafe district, or a targeted restaurant area, Floyd said.
“It’s not one individual effort — it’s a collective group,” he said. Floyd asked the URA members for their input and to think about forming some sort of partnership.
He said Fairmont has already identified a niche for independent businesses.
According to Rogers, the ultimate goal is to establish the cafe district as the place to go to eat and also to provide other offerings and activities nearby.
URA member Bob Gribben commented that people should be able to park their vehicle and do three things while they’re in this district.
“I think we need a community identity in some regard,” Frank Kerekes, also a member, said. “(The cafe district) is something that would identify us.”
In other news, the URA met with TranSystems/Lichtenstein and H2L2 LLC in October to discuss the different design options for the future Fairmont pedestrian bridge, which will be built at the site of the former Low Level Bridge.
At that time, the engineers found that the stress ribbon bridge was the only design to meet all the URA’s objectives.
The URA, which is the steering committee for the project, is ready to wrap up the design portion and move forward, Rogers said. Once TranSystems makes the final report and returns it to the URA, the group will begin looking into a funding strategy for the project.
This summer marks the URA’s fourth anniversary, and chairman Gerry Schmidt said 2009 seems very promising and marks “a new beginning” for the organization. He said he looks forward to the URA having a successful year.
Rogers proposed that the authority review and amend its work plan for 2009. The members agreed that it was important to determine the approach they want to take this year and the best project for them to pursue.
Rogers also suggested that the group arrange a meeting with Charleston’s urban renewal authority, which he said has had great success.
E-mail Jessica Legge at jlegge@timeswv.com.