Many credit WAC for bring Dickson Street out of the doldrums
Posted on Sunday, October 29, 2006
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A Work of Art
Painting a portrait of the Walton Arts Center's 15-year history.
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- WAC Senior staff biographies (10-29-2006)
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- · Many credit WAC for bring Dickson Street out of the doldrums (10-29-2006)
- Other facility uses (10-29-2006)
- Parking lot was hot topic during WAC's formative years (10-29-2006)
Urban revitalization requires focal points, key projects that can unite the community in a common goal.
Local historians credit efforts to salvage the Old Post Office and create green space with saving the Fayetteville Square. Restoring Old Main and Carnall Hall helped preserve historically significant architecture on the University of Arkansas campus. As for Dickson Street, restaurateur Joe Fennel can identify distinct differences in the entertainment district before and after the creation of the Walton Arts Center.
"Once the arts center went in, you all of a sudden had something to go to down there, and then, when we redid the streets a few years ago, it added another piece of the puzzle,"Fennel said. "Now we're seeing other new pieces with the housing, restaurants and new hotel. It's the growth cycle, and thank God we've got it, or our downtown would be like everybody else's. It would be dead or so far down that it'd be too far to bring back."
Descriptions of the 1980s Dickson Street often include words such as dirty, dismal and dangerous. Some may contest that portrayal, but the fact is that many people perceived it as an undesirable location.
Dickson Street's reputation today has changed drastically. It's now considered the entertainment hub of Northwest Arkansas. By day, it attracts students and families for its shopping spots and eateries, and in the evening, it offers an active nightlife.
Fennel is among those who trace the upswing to the mid-1980s, when the City of Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas united with the shared vision of establishing an arts center. Both parties agreed on the general idea of having a center, but questions existed about its location.
Planners identified three possible sites: a lot north of the Cleveland and Razorback roads intersection, one sandwiched between Block and East avenues and fronting Archibald Yell Boulevard, and a third at the southeast corner of Dickson and West streets. The question was issued for citizen feedback.
The survey drew 1,318 replies, with 624 respondents (47.34 percent) choosing the Dickson Street site and 499 votes (37.79 percent) in favor of the Archibald Yell Boulevard location.
Advantages listed in the survey for the Dickson Street site were its location between the university and downtown and its "potential of providing the anchor needed to spur redevelopment of an under-utilized and deteriorating area."
Dickson Street might still be in a downward spiral without the arts center's presence, said Marilyn Heifner, the current executive director of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission and a city board member during the arts center planning stages.
"There wasn't another catalyst for a change, and I don't see anything else going in there that would have the kind of budget the arts center has,"Heifner said. "Dickson Street was a compromise location, and thank goodness for it."
The Walton Arts Center opened its doors April 26, 1992, following years of planning and a final private fund-raising campaign that raised more than $7 million. The process gave Fennel enough confidence to remain in downtown Fayetteville and subsequently open another well-known Dickson Street establishment.
Fennel opened his Mexican restaurant and bar, Jose's, on March 5, 1980, in what he described as a rough section of town. He recalled three murders occurring on Dickson Street his first year in business, and few people regularly spent money in the area.
But Fennel's options were limited. The popularity of North College Avenue and the Northwest Arkansas Mall raised property values beyond levels practical to him.
"It was the only place I could afford to open a business,"Fennel said of Dickson. "It felt good to me, but at that stage, North College was the hot spot to be, and there wasn't a building available, and the rent was too high for me."
Jose's did enough business for Fennel that by the mid-1980s he began considering a move to north Fayetteville. Then came the idea of an arts center on Dickson Street, which not only convinced him to stay, but to open a second business offering Italian cuisine.
Today, Fennel finds himself concentrating on that creation, Bordino's, having passed Jose's on Dickson to longtime employee Neal Crawford.
Fennel and Bordino's co-owner/executive chef Chrissy Sanderson support the arts center by having their restaurant cater events and feed artists. They also regularly serve arts center patrons who dine at the restaurant before shows.
"Our business is greatly affected by what's going on at the arts center,"Fennel said. "The quality of shows and quality of customers they attract over there is healthy for our business. It benefits us and restaurants like Theo's, having customers looking for that quality of dining when they go to the theater, just like in the big cities."
Fennel sees that bond created by the patrons as establishing a synergy among the arts center and Dickson Street establishments. Patrons may go one place for dinner, then attend a show and end their evenings with dessert or a drink at another business.
Julie Sill and Kari Larson have operated businesses for nine years on Dickson Street, starting with The Common Grounds, and now, the Hog Haus Brewing Co., too.
"Between the Walton Arts Center and (the) university, there's a huge economic impact,"Sill said. "The arts center continues to improve on who they're bringing in, and it helps our business a ton."
The arts center's presence on Dickson and the atmosphere it provides is what Fennel thinks is drawing a lot of dining options back downtown after a noticeable shift about a decade ago to north Fayetteville. The street now offers sushi, Thai, Mediterranean and Greek food in addition to the Mexican, Italian and American staples.
The return to popularity has a lot of people singing the praises of the 21st century's version of Dickson Street, but the key is to sustain the growth and maintain the vibrancy. Only then can the Walton Arts Center be recognized as the project that forever changed the neighborhood.
"All those things have yet to be decided,"Heifner said. "Dickson Street was really good in the 1960s, then it went way down, and now it has come back up, so only time will tell."
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