DOWNTOWN RENOVATIONS

{ Feature }

The Mainline on Main Street

The Restoration of Seguin's Historic Downtown

Story and photos by Felicia Frazar

Home of the World’s Largest Pecan

The heart of Seguin lies at the intersection of Court Street and Austin Street.

Throughout the years, the city’s heartbeat has slowed and sped up, but it never stopped.

And now, it’s rolling at a steady pace with established businesses thriving and new businesses taking up shop.

The gradual change to get downtown Seguin to where it is took about four

decades in the making, said Kyle Kramm, Seguin Main Street director and Convention and Visitors Bureau director.

“It goes back about 40 years ago,” he said. “That is when Seguin first became part of the Main Street organization. We were one of the pilot cities for the program. We were part of the program from ’81 to’85.”

The city left the program only to rejoin in 1997, giving the historic

downtown district the boost it needed. “Rejoining the program is what really kicked off the downtown revitalization,” Kramm said.

The combination of public and private investments and the partnerships between public and private investors helped create a positive change and bring businesses and visitors back to the heart of Seguin, Kramm said.

Some of the changes included burying overhead power lines, constructing sidewalks, as well as renovating Central Park and Walnut Springs Park.

Funding came from the public through the Destination Seguin bonds as well as state grants.

“Once you started to see this public money going back into our town, you started to see more private investments coming in as well,” Kramm said.

Private investors like Jason Howell, Freddie Leos, the Smiths and the Woodalls purchased historic properties in and around the square, breathing life back into the buildings and restoring them to their former glory.

“I think Jason Howell is one of the first investors to really come to downtown and take that risk and that was due to the city’s incentive programs in ’08 or ’09,” Kramm said.

The changes drew established businesses to relocate. Gift and Gourmet, which was just outside the downtown district purchased a building on Austin Street, renovated it and made it their new home.

Seguin Brewing Company initially started outside of the city limits, but eventually the partners brought the tasting room to Gonzales Street and throughout the years have expanded it to include a restaurant.

New businesses varying from restaurants, retail shops, antiques and more dot the storefronts drawing new customers in.

“A lot of these people started to recognize and see what was going on in downtown Seguin and they wanted

to add to it and be part of the success,” Kramm said.

While the new ventures are just starting their journeys, long-established businesses continue to thrive. For more than 100 years, Starcke Furniture has seen the ebb and flow of neighboring businesses from its windows at the corner of Austin and Nolte streets.

Current co-owner Hilmar Starcke has watched the changes that have taken place over the years.

“We’ve seen an increase in occupancy in store fronts in all of downtown and then I’ve seen as it has gone the other direction and then come back,” he said. “It’s kind of like a wave. It is interesting like that.”

The variety of businesses offer a unique experience to visitors, Starcke said.

“Downtown is still a collection of very different sorts of occupants,” he said. “We have a few residences down here, but we have banks, lawyers’ offices, retailers, real estate. It is such a conglomeration of many different sorts of occupants. It makes it neat, but then you don’t have a common thread as you might in a shopping center that is all retail or something like that. You don’t have a common thread to bind them all together. You wind up being a collection of independent characters down here. You can walk up one end of Austin Street and find a whole different crowd of folks doing different various things. It is wonderful.”

Other long-time businesses like Starcke’s include Vogue Shoes, Picketts Fine Arts and Frame and The Oak Tavern.

“You’ve got these long-term businesses who have been here for generations,” Kramm said. “That says something about the ability to be successful downtown.Those are our anchors in downtown that has been successful.”

It has taken the city’s downtown historic district a long time to get to where it is now, the area will only continue to grow as the community does, Kramm said.

“Downtown is not an overnight success,” he said. “It is very incremental, small changes that we made to make downtown successful. Little things add up over time.”