A rendering of the planned revitalization is scheduled to be seen at Tuesday’s city commission meeting
City of Henderson leaders are ready to unveil a plan and renderings for the Letcher Street corridor that they hope will be an anchor in the community and lead to increased interest in the historical East End area.
For the past couple years, the city has purchased several properties along Letcher Street with the idea of turning them over to future business owners so that it can be transformed into the bustling corridor it once was.
Mayor Brad Staton said that the details of how business owners will move into the buildings—through renting or owning and other specifics, such as incentives—have not been worked out. He said the revitalization includes properties on the business side of the street and those on the residential side.
The Henderson City Commission is scheduled to see a rendering of the corridor plans created by Skinner Design Associates at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting when it will be discussed at greater length.
Staton said he hopes the area can become a place where “small businesses thrive…kind of like it used to be.”
Before big box stores and strip malls became prevalent, there were ma and pa businesses that thrived in the East End—hardware stores, butcher shops, groceries.
“We’re wanting to bring back a lot of this feeling of the inner city,” Staton said.
So far, there are not any economic packages for business owners in place, but the mayor said—hypothetically—the city could offer a sum of money to businesses that start up and then some sort of retention bonus for staying in the location for a certain length of time. Any incentive packages would be discussed and approved later, he said.
Currently, the city is in the process of acquiring more property along the corridor. The city has already bought several properties, and some have been condemned and were later torn down. Staton said the city could build back new properties there. Some of that area could be used for parking as well, he said.
Additionally, Staton said the city intends to help with the residential side of the corridor, which he hopes will hold the location for the HERO program, an initiative that came out of the first year of the city’s Inner City Improvement Plan.
In the HERO program—HERO stands for Henderson Encouraging Resident Officers—a police officer would live in a city-provided house rent free for up to two years, Staton said. The program would help with police staffing, provide for security for the businesses with an officer living across the street and aid the Henderson Police Department’s community policing initiatives.
Both Staton and Assistant City Manager Buzzy Newman said the area has seen improvements for years, starting with the Audubon Kids Zone moving to its location on the corner of Powell and Letcher streets in 2015.
Since then, other improvements—some by the city, some by private individuals—have come to the area. They include the city’s East End Park, the new Audubon School Senior Apartments and the Bodega Market Luncheria & Groceries.
Staton and Newman say the unveiling of the city’s plan will quicken the pace of the revitalization. Already, according to Newman, private businesses and investors have begun to notice and are interested in moving to the area.
Staton said he doesn’t like to put time estimates about when a project will be completed, but said he hopes for 3-5 years. As mentioned, the city still wants to acquire more properties along the corridor. Then a vision plan will need to be created and funding for the project determined, the mayor said.
In addition to work on buildings and possible construction, the project will also include new lighting, new curb and gutters, and new sidewalks, according to the officials.
“It’s going to take a lot of money,” Newman said. He said the city will plan to do a little bit each year.
Staton said the city will also look for grants to help pay for the project.
Finally, Staton said the city wants to place some sort of structure at the entrance to the corridor, most likely at Washington and Letcher streets, as a sort of indicator that people are entering “an area that has its own unique sense of place.”
