Agree. The buildout of Santa Fe Square and the Annex project will a have similar impact on the Blue Dome District. I’d like to see Elgin continue to build into the commercial corridor that connects the ballpark area to the rest of downtown.
Elgin I wish the city would put a little money into. Do the brick all the way down to 11th like they have done by the ballpark and turn it into a more pedestrian friendly street and allow the businesses to have more patio/outdoor seating.
It has a lot of potential to be a 'strip' type set up - put some type of overlay that would encourage multiple facades/small infill. While I don't care for 6th Street in Austin - Tulsa could use something similar that is a known area for entertainment and Elgin is kind of the center in between a lot of different district and could act as a spin between Arts/Greenwood, Blue Dome/East Village, 6th into the Pearl and back toward the Convention Center and 11th Street east and west. If a little concentration was put into this area it could then feed outwards too.
A lot of great cities kind of have that evening street/gathering space - Dallas is Deep Ellum (formerly McKinney was the main street but now it's migrated over to Main/Commerce in Deep Ellum), Austin 6th Street or Rainey Street or SoCo, Memphis has Beale Street, Nashville has Broadway, New Orleans is obviously Bourbon Street, Vancouver is Granville, etc. etc. Elgin if developed in a certain way could emulate that and really serve as a main strip - right now the horrible shape of the streets keeps that from happening. It really makes me sad when I'm downtown after coming back from places like even Oklahoma City. We really really really need a Project 180 type package for downtown. The road diets and stuff have been great but we still lack some very basic things like more street trees, proper lighting, decent sidewalks in so much of downtown it's really pathetic for an area that has seen so much development that the city hasn't done something to address the walkability of downtown more aggressively. Same with the 18th & Boston area as discussed in another topic - the lack of proper urban infrastructure investment is really holding many areas of town back. Same could be said about the Pearl too.