Racine downtown plan takes shape

A plan that even now is reshaping the face of downtown Racine is receiving national attention from planning organizations.
The plan, which was developed for the Downtown Racine Corp. (RDC) by Crandall Arambula PC of Portland, Ore., won the International Downtown Award for Excellence for a Downtown Plan presented by the American Institute of Architects in Los Angeles last fall. The plan was also reviewed favorably by the Sierra Club’s annual publication in its list of best and worst smart growth cities.
The initial version of the plan was completed in 1999, but according to RDC chairman Brian Anderson, who is also program manager for Community Development for Johnson International, the plan is now in the process of catching up with unfolding reality.
“We are now doing an update on the plan,” Anderson said. “The plan called for certain projects — but now a lot of those things have been started and some completed. We will highlight what has already been completed and what is slated to start.”
Completed downtown structures include One Main Street – a building on Main Street near the Root River. The building, designed by Engberg Anderson Design Partnership of Milwaukee, now houses M&I Bank on the first floor, an investment firm on the second floor, as well as other tenants. According to Anderson, the building is not yet fully occupied.
A site located between the M&I building and State Street is designated as a retail site. A gourmet grocery store will be completed on the site in the next three or for months, Anderson added.
“The Monument Square site has been identified in the plan as a new office building and parking,” Anderson said of a site at the juncture of Sixth and Main streets. “In the meantime, Johnson International was scattered at different locations and decided to build its headquarters there. This will be the home of Johnson International, Johnson Bank and Johnson Outdoors.”
The new Johnson headquarters will bring valuable retail and restaurant traffic, and will have additional benefits according to Anderson.
“In addition to being a catalyst project, it will also be a building where a lot of people will come to see the design,” Anderson said. “The building was designed by Bill McDonough of William McDonough and Partners. Bill is now working with Bill Ford to redesign the Rouge plant in Michigan — recreating the auto manufacturing process to be more environmentally friendly. He also did a Nike factory that has grass roofs.”
The new Johnson building at Monument Square — so named because across the street is a park area featuring a fountain and a monument to the city’s Civil War dead — is what the plan refers to as an anchor project. It is one of a handful of major developments throughout the downtown that will stimulate other business development activity.
“The beauty of having catalyst projects is that the smaller projects tend to fill in,” Anderson said. “Attracting H.W. Schwartz is a major coup — they just located a bookstore here as well as a little café. Greens and Goods just opened a few doors down. A woman’s clothing store is opening in the 400 block later this summer. The Wustum Museum is now under restoration. M&I donated its old building to the Wustum, which is an exciting thing to draw people to Racine. Wustum has the third largest craft exhibit — but can currently only exhibit 10% of what it has due to space limitations. This will change with this new facility.”
“Funky Hannah’s Beads and Artifacts and a couple of other businesses are looking at redoing their fronts into something more historic. DRC helps businesses do renderings of what their downtown buildings should look like historically. We pay for the designs as a service to the downtown businesses.”
Anderson added that the City of Racine has a facade loan program to assist businesses in order to help make the renderings into realities.
Backed up by council
The plan’s ability to take concepts from drawing board to reality is one of its main strengths, according to Anderson, as it has the backing of the city government — something relatively few urban plans receive.
“The plan is different because it went to the common council, and the common council adopted this plan as the land use plan for downtown,” Anderson said. “The plan also called out specific design guidelines for buildings — and these were also adopted by the council, which established a design review committee. Any building project costing $5,000 or more has to go before the design review committee. This guarantees us certain standards and helps us assure the historic character of the downtown.”
These close relationships with city officials will help in putting in place a business improvement district (BID) for the downtown.
“We have put together the plan for the BID and will begin right now to go around to business owners explaining the BID and how it can benefit them,” Anderson said. “Funds could be used to pay for street cleaning — we are looking at having the curbs and sidewalks cleaned on a daily basis. We could use it for security — including the hiring of downtown ambassadors — who would wear some sort of clothing that is easily identified. They would be picking up trash and giving a sense of security. Money can be used for additional bike and foot patrols through the Racine Police Department.”
Funds from the BID could also be used for banners and other marketing-related projects, as well as enhanced flower planting, Anderson said.
Challenges to surmount
“It’s got to be alive 24 hours a day,” Anderson said. “We need people living down here and services to support that. We need draws to bring people down here.”
The hard part about even getting to downtown Racine now, however, is skirting the construction that is blocking a block of Main Street.
“The biggest challenge right now is the street construction,” Anderson said. “I think that, because of all the positive things going on, we don’t have a lot of other challenges. Certainly the challenge is not getting business down here now — it is getting the right mix and all the services that people need. The gourmet grocery store will serve residents, summer boaters and employees in the downtown.”
Attracting consumers will be a top priority, according to Anderson — a priority that will be a challenge to address since RDC is seeking a replacement for executive director Matt Wagner, who recently accepted a position as director of the Racine County Technology Development Center.
“One of the things we are doing is engaging Malcolm Marketing Communications of Racine for a marketing plan and branding,” Anderson said. “What is our identity? That process will identify some of the needs for downtown. The marketing plan is aimed at both business and consumers — but the main focus is consumers. What we have done is hire Kathy Hansen as interim director — and she will oversee RDC during the search. Her main focus will be working with Malcolm Marketing Communications on the marketing plan and presentations of BID proposal to property owners.”
Hansen was formerly an executive vice president at Johnson International, and is the wife of Johnson International CEO Richard Hansen.
“Malcolm Marketing Communications is doing a survey to identify some of the things that are lacking,” Anderson said. “As you look at the needs of downtown residents — we need a video store and a bakery if the gourmet grocery store doesn’t have a bakery. We don’t have a shoe store. We don’t have men’s apparel.”
Hospitality a key
Another thing Racine lacks is a convention hotel, Anderson said. But that is something RDC is trying to remedy.
“One of the things that is in the plan is a convention hotel,” he said. “As part of the convention hotel, we would require an expansion of the festival site to the south so that the festival site could accommodate medium-sized conventions not big enough for the Midwest Express Center or the Milwaukee or Chicago markets.”
Anderson acknowledged that Racine’s potential for convention business is limited by its distance from a major airport.
“We would be able to attract medium-sized conventions that could be regional or of a nature where the majority of people drive to the area,” he said.
The festival grounds, downtown and convention center would in turn be connected to other amenities by the city’s natural feature — the Root River.
“The whole idea of connecting the downtown to the rest of the city through the Root River pathway is now being undertaken by the city,” Anderson said. “The path would go from the Wustum Museum all the way downtown. My hope would be that there would be a continuation of that along the water north to the zoo. You go to so many communities that are along the water and they all have paved areas where any time of the day there are people riding their bikes, inline skating, walking or running. Business frontage on river is something that could evolve from this.”