Cities across the country without historic downtowns or traditional commercial areas are making efforts to create them.
In Mississippi, 80 communities have turned to Mississippi Main Street Association, an economic development organization that specializes in downtown revitalization, for help.
Other towns in the state such as Ridgeland have decided to do it on their own with help from city planners.
Jim Woodrick, a Ridgeland resident, applauds both efforts to preserve existing downtowns filled with historic buildings and to build them from the ground up with new buildings.
“Everybody needs a sense of place and sense of pride in their town,” he said, noting that downtowns help provide that.
History plays a role in whether a city has an established downtown or lacks one, said Woodrick, a retired employee of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Canton, for example, has a town square with a courthouse in the middle, which is typical of its designation as a county seat, he said. Gluckstadt and Pearl lack downtown because they developed as suburbs.
Ridgeland and Madison grew up along the railroad tracks, but Ridgeland had a fire early in its history and most of the downtown burned. “When Highway 51 came in, businesses moved over there and it developed that way,” he said.
Working with a landscape architecture firm, Ridgeland has focused on transforming West Jackson Street between U.S. Highway 51 and I-55 into a central, walkable downtown named the Railroad District.
The name, the Railroad District, recalls the significance the railroad played in the founding of Ridgeland in the 1890s. The district was officially named in November 2019 when a historical marker and plaque were placed at the Plaza at Old Town Crossing, which is next to the railroad.
In January 2023, city leaders approved the master plan for the Railroad District. The city hired Kimley Horn, a Memphis-based landscape architecture firm, for $85,000 to develop the plan.
Last year, the city received a $15.653 million federal grant to advance a safety project along West Jackson Street. The funding will support an initiative designed to reduce crashes and improve pedestrian and bicycle safety.
“This grant is a once-in-a-lifetime type of project,” said Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee. “It will transform West Jackson Street and the Railroad District into an active downtown where walking is encouraged. The key to the success of the project is to improve pedestrian safety.”
A demonstration project, which will simulate the improvements with barriers and striping, will begin this summer and the implementation of the improvements could begin as early as the summer of 2027.
“The construction phase of the implementation project will likely take 10-12 months, so we don’t expect to reveal all the improvements until the summer of 2028,” McGee said. “The demonstration project will only take two to three months to complete.”
While much of downtown Madison is bustling with retail, restaurants, office space and housing, there’s still a 17-acre parcel at U.S. Highway 51 and Main Street, known as City Center, awaiting development. The city installed new water lines, a retention pond and other infrastructure to support development.
Greg Johnston, a Madison developer, believes the city’s move to put infrastructure in place at the City Center, which includes the Madison Square Center for the Performing Arts and Madison’s City Hall, which is the old Madison-Ridgeland High School, is smart. “The city is doing things that would have to be done before any development occurs,” he said.
Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins-Butler and the board of aldermen realize the City Center property is unique, he said, explaining why it has taken time for more development to occur there. “They don’t want to take the first offer to put anything there,” he said.
Gluckstadt’s master plan includes an overlay district that includes property south of Germantown High School where a city center could be developed.
There’s no timeline for the development, which would require both public and private sector funds, said Gluckstadt Mayor Walter Morrison.
There are six guiding principles for creating a successful downtown area, Randy Wilson, president of Community Design Solutions in Columbia, S.C., and a consulting architect to Mississippi Main Street.
“The first one is the importance of density,” he said. “You have to have enough development so where you’re creating a downtown it mirrors a downtown. What I’ve seen is that cities will put in a new City Hall complex and pretend it’s a downtown or a lifestyle mall, but you need more than that.”
A mix of uses is “100 percent imperative” in a new downtown, he said. That’s a mix of government buildings, retail shops, restaurants and structures such as office buildings.
Location is important.
“You must have enough connectivity to unify a place. You can’t put a downtown a mile outside of town,” Wilson said. “If you do, it’ll feel like an elevated mall or a nice City Hall.”
The design of the buildings should be considered, too.
“If you think of historic downtowns, those buildings were bult over an extended period of time using different designs and construction methodology,” Wilson said. “If you make all the buildings look the same it won’t feel like it’s genuine.”
Historic downtowns were designed to be pedestrian-oriented and adapted due to the automobile, he said. “If you ask people to name their favorite cities, they’ll usually mention cities that are walkable,” he said.
Also, key is ownership identity.
“I’m talking about a place that needs to look and feel like it belongs to everybody,” he said. “One of the reasons why it’s so important that we care for, maintain and revitalize our historic downtowns is that they’re the one place in the life of the city that belongs to everybody.”
Programming to draw people downtown is needed, Wilson said.
“Somebody has to create reasons for people to visit such as festivals, concerts and markets,” he said. “Downtown Greenville, S.C. is the posterchild for this.”
Developing an area with roads and other infrastructure and drawing a mix of civic, retail, dining and other tenants to an area can take 10 to 15 years at a minimum, Wilson said.
“The natural evolution when it feels embedded could take 15 to 20 years,” he said. “That’s when it feels like it’s an authentic part of the community.”
