Through major renovations, city officials hope to turn downtown Provo into a 24-hour town where people can work, play and live.

Mayor Billings said within the next three to five years the image of downtown Provo will change dra-matically. Citizens will see more housing built, another full-service hotel and an increased amount of commercial office space.

“If you were to take a snapshot of downtown Provo now, and come back in three years, the town will be dra-matically improved,” Billings said.

There are six prongs that together turn the historic downtown center into a more ideal district: government, business, finance, legal jurisprudence, arts and housing, Billings said. With these ideas in mind, several new structures are in the making for downtown.

The first project to be completed is the performing arts center, which will be built where the old Provo library building currently stands.

A stunning anchor, planned for the west Center Street entrance, will attract people to its events.

“We need to get the nightlife back into downtown and get people there at night,” said director of redevelopment Paul Glauser. “This performing arts center will help us achieve that.”

The conference center will be built as an addition to the Marriott hotel and is another major addition to downtown. Completion of this con-ference center is expected somewhere in the two-year mark.

Building non-chain shops and restaurants around the conference center will help create the feeling of escape for those who are attending meetings there. Businesspeople can walk to different places, like supportive retail, surrounding the area.

Property and sales taxes will not be raised for these improvements to happen, Glauser said. Rather, in-creased hotel, restaurant and car rental taxes would pay for them. The people who will use the new conference center will pay for the improve-ments.

City officials have employed Chris Lineberger, a specialist in downtown redevelopment planning, to assist with the task of revamping downtown Provo. Billings said he heard about Lineberger’s work in cities such as Albuquerque and Pasadena and was interested in applying his methods.

Eventually, Lineberger helped city officials put together a strategic plan with the downtown stakeholders, which is now known as the “Lineberger Initiative.”

The “Lineberger Initiative” includes housing above and next to retail shops, as well as parking tucked away out of sight, such as below and behind other buildings.

“The old downtown look is what we’re trying to restore,” Glauser said.

Before starting the planning, Dan Jones and Associates polled Utah County residents and discovered that with the right improvements, they would want to live downtown.

“Housing improvement along with more entertainment and restaurants is a sure way to get people to be downtown,” Glauser said.

Housing, offices and retail are also development goals that the Utah County citizens agreed would make them more likely to move downtown.

A problem that comes with want-ing to make so many changes is trying to get several stakeholders to agree on a plan. Some of the owners of the downtown shops have lived in Provo for many years, and their shops are part of their family heritage.

The current buildings in downtown Provo will not be torn down. Instead, things like window treatments and restoration will help the new buildings look a similar style to the historic structures.

Lineberger agreed Provo already has an ideal downtown area. At this point it just needs to evolve into something better and more inviting, he said.

Billings said the city has other plans for revitalizing downtown Provo that they have not yet revealed to the public.

“Downtowns go through life cycles, and ours started the day after Provo was founded,” Billings said. “Provo downtown is strong compared to its past.”

In the 1980s local leaders and organizations such as the Provo Chamber of Commerce decided they did not want Provo to regain its status as the retail center of Utah County, but wanted it to become the heart of business, government and finance. Over the last few years, a serious development plan has been in the works and is starting to take form.

“We want to bring back the vi-brancy and activeness that has died through the years,” Billings said.

Copyright Brigham Young University 20 Nov 2006