Casey Hallmark is optimistic. It’s been a little over six months since she took over the reins at Downtown Odessa and she’s convinced momentum is picking up when it comes to revitalizing the heart of Odessa.
Within a matter of months, Odessans will be able to eat pizza and drink wine at Homemade Wines, buy Christmas gifts and home decor at McJack General Store, dine at an indoor food court and hang out at Icon Tavern. They’ll also get to relish Odessa College’s new green space, attend performances under two new canopies and enjoy a splash pad.
Hallmark is the executive director for Downtown Odessa, an organization that is half non-profit agency and half city agency.
“The ultimate goal for downtown is to be a destination where people can come and spend the entire day shopping or going to the hotel (the Marriott) to go have a drink or grabbing a burger at the hamburger station. (To make sure) there are things to do that will fill up your whole day,” she said.
Over the last several months, Hallmark said she has been focused on spreading the word about grants available through the Odessa Development Corporation, hoping to both attract new businesses and improve existing aesthetics.
Eligible business owners and operators can receive up to $25,000 in ODC grant money for their facades and up to $200,000 to revamp their infrastructure, Hallmark said.
“We just have a lot of buildings that are vacant that have been vacant for a long time that nobody’s doing anything with and whenever we have vacant buildings sitting, it doesn’t look like a thriving downtown,” Hallmark said. “So we really, really, really want to encourage people to start renovating or sell and let somebody else come in and start renovating. When people buy property and sit on it, it doesn’t benefit downtown.”
Hallmark suspects there are many vacant storefronts in downtown because people are unaware of the grants and are worried about the expense of rehabbing them. Many would require asbestos removal and have outdated plumbing and electrical systems and dilapidated roofs.
John Herriage, a restaurateur-turned-Realtor, moved here in 1987 and fell in love with the downtown area. The board chair-elect of Downtown Odessa has personally bought and sold nine or 10 buildings downtown. He’s also served as the Realtor for four other downtown projects. He’s currently helping four additional business owners who are revitalizing their downtown buildings during the design process.
ODC’s grant program is a huge boon, Herriage said.
“We’ve got grant money. That’s one of the things that’s really awesome about the city,” Herriage said. “When I went to the Texas Downtown Association meeting and we discussed this, most cities are not doing this. I mean, you don’t see the facade grants and infrastructure grants that Odessa’s offering in many other cities, at least to the size we’re doing. Previously when we were Mainstreet Odessa, you maybe could get $1,000 or a couple thousand for doors, windows and a few things, but now you can get hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
He was drawn to downtown because he’s always loved old buildings.
“I like the old architecture and downtown was kind of rough and ugly and had a lot of vacancies and I didn’t like it,” Herriage said. “I wanted to see what we can do to get different ones involved to revitalize downtown, to bring it back.”
While he sometimes runs into naysayers, the owner of Copper Key Realty said he prefers to focus on the positive.
“Downtown is not the east side, the west side, the north side. Downtown is everyone’s side. It’s the center,” Herriage said. “Years ago it was a huge gathering place and it kind of went old and we’re building it back. I’m just super passionate about helping people downtown, re-growing downtown.”
Herriage, who serves on several boards, said he takes great pleasure in seeing the results.
“Yes, it has not been as quick as we want at all, but there’s progress,” he said. “There’s lots of things happening downtown.”
The opening of the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in October 2019 prompted a lot of excitement, but it’s had some unintended consequences, Hallmark said.
“This is just my opinion, but I think whenever the plans for the Marriott were announced, I think that people bought up property downtown thinking that it was going to double or quadruple in price,” Hallmark said. “They thought ‘I’m gonna get in, buy this property at a really low price and then whenever the Marriott gets built and we have a thriving downtown, I’ll sell it.’”
COVID-19 hit, however, slowing down the momentum of the revitalization project.
Some continue to believe they can make a huge profit and that may not be realistic, Hallmark said.
She hopes they’ll come around.
“We’ve got to fill these buildings up,” Hallmark said. “There is definite interest. I have probably between 20 and 30 businesses calling me a month trying to come downtown, so it’s not that there’s not the desire.”
Another problem is many of the vacant buildings are quite large, too large for the many boutiques and other small businesses that have expressed an interest in downtown, Hallmark said. For example, there’s the former Jim’s Big and Tall, the old Piccadilly and the former Rio Theater. In addition, Jeff Russell is moving Paul Evans carpeting to a new location.
Herriage said he’d love for investors to come in and subdivide the buildings to create rental spaces, especially for Mom and Pop businesses that don’t have the funds necessary to buy a building.
Hallmark and Herriage agree they’d like to see more eateries, retail stores and greenspace downtown.
“A gym would be nice and currently we’re talking to two different ones and we’ve got someone who wants to put in a bakery and someone wants to put in another bar,” Herriage said.
While Hallmark isn’t totally against someone from outside the area coming in, she’d prefer downtown be filled with locally-owned businesses.
“I think that kind of adds to the charm of downtown, when it’s homegrown local folks down here trying to make a living,” she said.
While Hallmark said she’s eager to fill up all of the empty spaces downtown, she’s not forgotten the existing downtown businesses.
”My goal is to research and look for things that are going to help the businesses that are here… I think sometimes it’s really easy to focus on the new and the shiny and forget the people who have been here and held it down for so long and I’m very grateful for them,” Hallmark said.
Asked for a downtown completion date, Herriage laughed.
”I don’t think there will ever be an end. I think we’ll continue to keep growing and expanding because the more we build, the more we expand, the more people will get interested in it. Our downtown’s very small and I think we’ll see it start spreading out,” he said.
Hallmark and Herriage noted the city is pursuing other avenues to make downtown more attractive, too. They opened up 85 new parking spots downtown by changing some of the parallel parking into diagonal parking, for example.
The council also recently unveiled its downtown master plan, which focuses on “walkability.” Downtown will be dotted with public art, benches, bike racks, wider sidewalks, better signage and more attractive landscaping.
“I see lots of things happening downtown,” Herriage said. “I’m really proud of our city council, our city management. They’re pushing. They’re for it. They’re behind us. They want a bigger, better downtown also. And to the naysayers, ‘If you don’t like what’s happening, get involved. Help us out.’”
