As Ridgefield continues to rank among Washington’s fastest-growing cities, a consortium of business owners and residents hopes to ensure its quiet downtown streets keep pace with the rest of the city.
Nearly a year ago, a group of Ridgefield Business Association members branched out to form the Ridgefield Main Street program, a nonprofit organization focused on bolstering the city’s small business scene downtown. More recently, the organization became affiliated with the Washington State Main Street Program, which aims to help revitalize the economy and aesthetic design of downtown commercial cores in cities through the state.
Now, the group is ramping up a more aggressive social media campaign and hosting additional events to highlight businesses in downtown. One of the first projects the group is promoting is the expansion and remodel of the historic Sportsman’s Restaurant and Lounge on Main Avenue.
Terry Hurd, who purchased the place four years ago, is expanding the business, adding a new dance floor, a second-story seating area overlooking the wildlife refuge and seating capacity for about 370 more people. Hurd’s hope is that the remodel will help make downtown Ridgefield a more popular place to relax and dine.
Part of the idea is to keep up with competition as more restaurants come to the Ridgefield Junction.
“I have to give people a reason to go past those and come down here,” Hurd said. “This is the first example of what Ridgefield and Main Street are going to do to revitalize downtown.”
Among Washington cities, Ridgefield had the second-fastest population growth rate from April 2013 to the same month this year. The trend is driven largely by a fast-developing commercial district at the Ridgefield Junction and a rebounding housing market, particularly along Pioneer Street between Interstate 5 and downtown.
With open land primed for development out east, it’s the right time to take a closer look at how to help downtown businesses on the west side prosper as well, said Frank Shuman, the group’s president.
“We’re trying to create an environment in this downtown area that mimics all that growth,” Shuman said. “Business in downtown is stable. It’s not growing. It’s not shrinking. I would say it’s on the verge of growth.”
For now, the nonprofit is specifically focused on a 12-block section of the city centered on Main Avenue and Pioneer Street. But Shuman and the Port of Ridgefield see the city’s downtown core growing to encompass 41 more acres to the west as commercial development gets underway along the waterfront.
Development at the waterfront site, known as Millers’ Landing, will buoy growth in the older downtown area, and vice versa, said Brent Grening, the CEO of the Port of Ridgefield. But the port faces a number of challenges in marketing the site to developers, Grening said, and it could be several years before that open land begins to fill out.
“We’re still trying to build interest,” he said.
Once the home of Pacific Wood Treating, Millers’ Landing is reaching the final stages of a long-running cleanup project. For a while, the waterfront was considered among the most contaminated sites in the state.
Now the site is ready for a new life and the port continues to market the land to developers, Grening said.
“When you had all the buildings here, it looked old, rundown, beat-up, like a problem,” he said. “Now it’s a lot easier for someone to envision being here.”
One of the last major hurdles to the development of the waterfront is securing funding for the final phase of a new overpass above the railroad connecting Millers’ Landing to Pioneer Street. The project will likely cost as much as $11 million, said Grening, who hopes the bulk of the money will come from the state.
But Grening’s not counting on that funding to be available anytime soon. Meanwhile, the port continues to coordinate with the Main Street program to develop somewhat of a shared vision for the future of downtown Ridgefield.
“You’ve got a growing population of folks in Ridgefield who need to be invited, need to be hosted, need to be shown that there are things to do down here,” Grening said. “What happens in downtown helps position this site for greater success.”
