HomeProgress-Index, 03/12/2006
Spreading good news one tour at a time
Petersburg’s downtown/Old Towne revitalization efforts are on a roll and city officials want everyone to know about it. They’ll tell their success stories to anyone who will listen, but they'll take extra steps and go the extra mile to share their message with key groups and individuals.
For the past several weeks, the Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and the city administration have been giving tours of Old Towne/downtown to key personnel from Fort Lee. The goal is to show the folks from the military installation in great detail the progress being made in Petersburg.
The 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process calls for Fort Lee to double in size within five years. Not only will the post jump from an average daily on-base population of the current 20,000 to 40,000, the economic impact on the region is expected to double as well. Currently, the base pumps $860 million annually into the economy and puts $57 million in tax revenue into local government coffers.
The expansion will affect the Tri-Cities in every possible way - additional students to attend public and private schools, increased traffic and an accompanying demand for new and bigger roads, a demand for new housing and an increase in the value of existing housing, increased demand for government services, new jobs on Fort Lee and additional jobs created by additional personnel at Fort Lee, to name a few.
Petersburg wants and deserves its share of that influx of economic activity. Petersburg officials want Fort Lee military and civilian personnel telling all the newcomers about the great things happening in the city.
Hence, the bus tours.
And it’s not like Petersburg officials are having to stretch to come up with good news to share. In addition to the well-publicized creation of an arts community (Friday for the Arts!, Sycamore Rouge), the return of upscale residential housing (High Street Lofts) and business activity galore, people from all over the U.S. are coming to Petersburg to renovate and restore historic homes. Long vacant buildings - like the former Bluebird Theatre on North Sycamore - Street have new owners. And a citizens group is leading the charge to develop Petersburg’s waterfront in anticipation of a dredging project that would create a small boat harbor.
Although news of the city’s resurgence is penetrating the Tri-Cities and well beyond, Chamber and city officials are to be commended for not making any assumptions. With the impending unprecedented surge in economic growth, there’s too much at stake for the city to risk not taking the tour by the horns, so to speak. The question is, should the Chamber look to invite other groups on similar tours?
