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Renderings/Hunter Interests Inc. Arts Complex concept drawing
By Kristen George
FLORENCE — It’s been about eight years since the birth of plans to revitalize downtown Florence. Now, as the project enters its fourth and final phase, the city’s efforts are becoming visible in downtown, particularly in the newly established arts and cultural district.
With a stately new library already in place, Florence’s arts and cultural district is beginning to flourish as construction begins on a city playhouse and a performing arts center.
The $17.5 million, 83,000-square-foot library was completed in 2004 and serves as an impressive centerpiece for downtown Florence with its classical columns and arched windows. Named after its benefactor, the Doctors Bruce and Lee Foundation, the library has served as a catalyst for the other projects that are steadily coming to fruition in downtown, including the playhouse and performing arts center.
The Doctors Bruce and Lee Foundation, a nonprofit philanthropy foundation started by two Florence physicians, last month donated $20 million in grant money to the construction of the performing arts center and the playhouse on separate sites within the arts and cultural district.
Half the grant money was awarded to Francis Marion University, which will partner with the city of Florence to build the FMU Center for Performing Arts. The second half of the grant will fund a new Florence Little Theatre, which will serve as a permanent home for the city’s 80-year-old community performance group. Construction is under way for the theater, and will begin soon for the performing arts center.
The need for revitalization was realized in 1999 when newly-elected Mayor Frank Willis cited the poor shape of the city’s downtown as a major deterrent for potential new industry. Willis appealed to the city’s government and business leaders to make a commitment to revitalize downtown. Lawyer George Jabaily of Jabaily Law Firm became one of the project’s first supporters and is now the chairman of the Florence Downtown Development Corp.
“It was painfully obvious that the state of our downtown was a big negative in attracting new industry,” Jabaily said. “With this economic realization came a desire to do this not just for the city of Florence or the county, but for the entire Pee Dee region.”
An ad hoc committee was formed—the Florence 2010 group—and through a series of meetings created a vision of where Florence ought to be 10 years in the future. The committee took its proposition to the public, which embraced it wholeheartedly, Jabaily said.
“When we held our first public meeting, the auditorium was jam-packed with people who, one after another, stood up and said, ‘Thank you—it’s about time,’” he said. “They said they were embarrassed of downtown Florence, that they felt we were not preserving our history and that they were ready to take this proposal to the next level.”
With that, the Florence Downtown Development Corp. was formed to steer the project. In addition, the city hired a downtown planning coordinator to head the city’s Urban Planning and Development Office. Phase I of the project also included setting up design guidelines and overlay zoning districts, and holding a series of public meetings—something that has continued and will continue through the project’s fruition.
“We’ve made the community’s opinion an important part of this project from day one,” Jabaily said. “It has made it so much easier for the political entities to do what they’ve needed to do because we’ve already been to the voters and they’ve embraced this whole process completely. I’m not exaggerating when I say that there have been virtually no nay-sayers.”
Phase II included establishing four separate districts—the downtown redevelopment district, the downtown historic district, the arts and cultural district and the downtown central district. It also involved project-based financial feasibility analysis, funding strategies and other implementation steps. During Phase III, a tax increment financing district was established and put into play.
In addition, the city has established partnerships with places like Francis Marion University’s Donald E. Kelly Small Business Institute to provide the existing small businesses downtown with the assistance they need to adjust and grow along with the city itself. Programs like a micro-loan program and a small business incubator are also in the works to foster the establishment of new small businesses in downtown.
Now, as Phase III comes to a close, the project moves forward into Phase IV, or the implementation phase. One piece of the implementation includes establishing neighborhood overlay districts to build up the city’s downtown neighborhoods. Conversations and meetings are beginning for the Timrod Park District in order to foster citizen involvement in the neighborhood project.
“We want the citizens to be involved in this project,” said Phillip Lookadoo, downtown planning coordinator. “We want to know what they want their neighborhoods to look like.”
Outside developers are also beginning to take notice of the buzz around downtown Florence. Greenville developers Caine Halter of Coldwell Banker Commercial Caine and Joe Pazdan of Pazdan-Smith Group Architects recently purchased a one-acre corner plot across from the future location of the performing arts center. A four-story business center will be constructed on the land and will house the offices of Florence attorneys Turner, Padget, Graham & Laney P.A., as well as other tenets.
Plans for the construction of affordable, Charleston-style, apartment housing are also in the works, and research is ongoing for the development of various distressed properties that the city has acquired. On the site of a former recycling plant near the city’s main entrance, the city is considering a baseball park among other options, Lookadoo said.
The project’s leaders are excited about the results thus far and they expect to see major development in the city’s near future, Jabaily said.
“We have come so far, not in terms so much of what you see physically on the ground, but we have firmly laid the foundation,” Jabaily said. “In the next three to five years there will be incredible growth here. I am firmly convinced of that. It’s going to be amazing.”
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