Downtown Mainstreet Inc. invites visitors to come and enjoy the “jewel of ‘God’s Country’ – historic downtown La Crosse, nestled alongside the mighty Mississippi River, surrounded by towering bluffs and offering the best of history, scenery and modern commerce.”

These words ring true today, but wouldn’t have a short time ago. The IRS once classified this city of 55,000 as “blighted and economically depressed” after the community lost its significance as a commerce center as well as its manufacturing businesses and passenger railroad services. In the decades that followed, the downtown economic climate continued to falter as an interstate highway routed traffic away from downtown while a new mall drove uptown retailers to the city’s outlying edges.

As the downtown area crumbled, revitalization became a word uttered by many but attained by no one —until now. La Crosse was recently voted the best revitalized downtown in Wisconsin and won a Great American Main Street Award for its blocks of historically preserved commercial buildings.

The downtown revitalization, part of the city’s 2000 Master Plan, included a million-dollar levee redevelopment project with boat docking facility, 65 block faces of streetscaping and 170 residential units. A $28 million transit center and plans for a new community theater continue to move revitalization forward.

The city’s efforts are paying off. More than 2,500 new jobs have been created downtown since 1993 and property values have risen by $40 million in the heart of the city. But this type of revitalization brings a payoff to the entire region, reminds Terry Whipple, president of the 7 Rivers Alliance and director of the Juneau County Economic Development Corp.

“Downtown revitalization not only benefits downtown, but the company that’s trying to draw talent into the area,” he says. “It benefits the entire region because we now have a place that’s not too far away that’s a great place to shop and meet. A strong La Crosse makes for a strong Juneau County, makes for a strong Monroe County, and so on.”

Building business

A primary goal behind each and every La Crosse revitalization project has been to boost business through retail and residential development. The two go hand in hand, explains Tim Kabat, planning and economic development administrator for the City of La Crosse. He points out that increasing the number of residential units injected new residents and new life into an ailing downtown. As businesses sprung up to meet these new residents’ needs, more people began traveling to the downtown to work. These individuals dined and shopped downtown, creating the need for more businesses in the retail sector.

As more people traveled to the downtown area, city officials also saw an increasing need to improve the city transit system. Work then began on a transit center designed to help people easily and safely navigate through downtown.

The city recently completed exterior construction and began interior work on this new center — the Grand River Station. But this facility will be more than just a place to catch a bus, Kabat says. While the six-story structure will house a primary passenger terminal and eight-bus transfer facility, it will also offer 92 residential apartments and 12,000-square-feet of ground-floor retail space.

The city promotes mixed-use facilities, such as this, as part of every downtown revitalization effort. “Combining opportunities for residential with opportunities for new jobs is key,” Kabat explains. “The more people you have living and working in downtown the better off your retail is going to be.”

Creating culture

Because city officials deemed building a cultural center in the historic downtown area important, Kabat says the transit project will include a common workshop area, media center and business office as well as 11 artist live-work units. These residences will open up to a common corridor to enable residents to host gallery nights and entice the public to come view their work.

“We are really trying to identify and market to artists so that we can have a nice core group of artists living in that building,” says Kabat.

The strategy fits well with what’s already in place, he explains. The city’s Pump House Regional Arts Center, located in the historic La Crosse water pumping station, offers a range of visual and performing arts activities, while the city continues to move forward on the La Crosse Community Theater project.

“Our Pump House Regional Arts Center is just across the street from where they are talking about putting the new community theater, which is right next to our civic center,” Kabat says. “With all of these developments, we’ll have the potential to create an arts district in our downtown.”

Encouraging education

La Crosse’s revitalization efforts have spread to the city’s three main educational institutions: the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, Viterbo University and Western Technical College. The combined efforts of these institutions, along with Franciscan Skemp Healthcare and Gundersen Lutheran, made it possible to open a 169,000-square foot, six-level Health Science Center in 2000.

This marked the beginning of growth-type projects within these institutions. In October, Western Technical College celebrated three years of effort with a ribbon cutting ceremony for its Lunda Center. The $5 million facility will offer specialized training for area businesses, says Lee Rasch, Western Technical College president.

He explains the center is already seeing good use, dovetailing into the college’s goal to further expose the public to its faculty and facilities. The project’s original goal was to reach 8,500 students through seminars and short-term courses, covering everything from leadership skills to green operations, by 2012. He now expects to far surpass that goal — the center will reach more than 7,000 individuals by the end of 2010.

“I think it’s an indication that there are a lot of changes in the workplace and companies and their employees are looking for ways to stay current,” he says. “They may not need a degree or certificate but require information that keeps them competitive.”

The college also recently entered into a lease agreement with a local developer to build a $9 million residence hall for 200 students. The hall is expected to open in August 2010. “This will provide more opportunities for students to live downtown and support the retail offerings,” adds Kabat.

Opening opportunities in Platteville

However, revitalization in Wisconsin’s southwest region doesn’t stop at La Crosse’s city limits. Further south, the University of Wisconsin – Platteville, nestled in a community of just 10,000, welcomed its largest freshman class ever. And the community is hard at work to ensure a growing number of students keep their talent there after graduation.

“We find a sizable percentage of students — 30 to 50 percent — would like to stay here when they graduate,” says George Krueger, executive director of Platteville Area Industrial Development Corp. “But we have a challenge in having the opportunities to keep them here — it’s still a relatively small area.”

The good news is there are signs pointing to this changing in the future. For instance, despite a down economy, the community’s business incubator had a very good year. Its success stories include Delta 3 Engineering, a full-service consulting engineering firm; and Avista Inc., an engineering software company. Likewise L&M Corrugated Container Corp., which opened its Platteville facility in 2006, plans to double its size and increase its employee count in the year to come, also creating opportunities for residents and graduates. “With the economy it’s been slow, but there are some bright spots,” Krueger says.

“These business and others offer a lot of internships and employment for UW-Platteville students and graduates.”

Platteville’s Mainstreet Program, a non-profit organization that advocates downtown restoration, also continued to thrive in 2009, says executive director Cheryl MacDowell. Recent revitalization efforts have included new streets and sidewalks, lampposts and historic building restorations.

“It is less expensive to restore and keep a building than it is to tear one down,” says MacDowell.

Revitalization has paid off by drawing a mixed bag of businesses, offering everything from organic foods to fine wines and books, to the historic downtown area. MacDowell credits revitalization as the reason why vacant buildings downtown do not remain empty for long. In early spring the downtown had three vacant buildings -- those shops no longer sit empty. “In fact, we’ve welcomed eight new businesses in the past year and are working on at least one more coming in,” she says.

Even with all these bright spots, Krueger admits 2009 has been a tough year for the community, which has strong ties to heavy manufacturing. But he counters the sting by saying, “We are doing better than some areas. We have seen a slow down, but we are doing OK. We didn’t see the real high-highs, so we won’t see the real low-lows either.”

Regional revitalization

The 7 Rivers Alliance, a regional leadership group that boosts economic growth by fostering collaboration in western Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa, brings together public and private resources to forge entrepreneurial growth. While its primary focus lies more in the northern-most part of Wisconsin’s southwest region, the entire region stands to benefit from these improvements, explains Whipple.

Today’s global economy dictates that businesses across the region learn to work together for the greater good, he explains.

“In the past, everybody sort of looked at themselves as an island,” he says. “But the value-added comes from intersecting industries and technologies to compete globally.” Revitalization and regional partnerships work hand in hand to build a stronger economic region. “No one looks at borders anymore, except for the government,” he emphasizes. “It’s time for us to say, we have an economic basin here, and let’s better the region for all of us.”

By Ronnie Garrett

Ronnie Garrett owns and operates Garrett & Co. Studios, a Fort Atkinson company providing editorial, photography and graphic design services.

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