The sounds of live music could be heard echoing through downtown Richardson last month as the City and downtown merchants held the inaugural Main Street Celebration.
The Oct. 23 event featured local artists, musicians and vendors and was designed to officially welcome back residents and business owners to the newly renovated and more pedestrian-friendly Main Street corridor.
One of the local business owners who spoke at the celebration was Elva Peyrot, whose Peyrot, Peyrot & Co. accounting firm has been in downtown Richardson at 119 E. Main St. since 1981. She said while there have been previous attempts to renovate Main Street, nothing like what was recently completed had been attempted in her 40 years downtown.
“Everything changed,” Peyrot said. “We had to dodge backhoes and bulldozers and give up our parking spots for trailers. We have listened to concrete saws. But today we get to celebrate, and that is the really cool thing.”
Over the past two years, the downtown area has undergone a full renovation thanks to funds from the 2015 Bond Program. Among the improvements are new pavement, wider sidewalks, increased landscaping and new lighting, all designed to help make the area more vibrant and friendly to visitors looking to explore the variety of businesses that call downtown home.
The City’s new Public Safety Campus, housing new stations for both the Fire and Police departments, was also constructed downtown at the corner of Greenville Avenue and Main Street. In conjunction with the redevelopment, the area was rebranded as The Core District, which is made up of five subdistricts: Downtown, Richardson Heights, Interurban, Lockwood and Chinatown.
“Any great city, large or small—and I am going to brag that Richardson, Texas is a great city—all have one thing in common,” said Mayor Paul Voelker. “They have a core downtown. And this one just happens to be called The Core—where you can live, work, and as we are doing today, gather… I believe this downtown will create an ecosystem that people will want to be a part of and will draw more and more people to want to live, work and gather in the City of Richardson and The Core.”
With the Belt + Main development underway at US 75 and Main Street, the work of transforming downtown Richardson is not yet complete. Belt + Main will include a mixture of residential and commercial space with a large public parking garage.
When all is said and done, Peyrot said she hopes to see an increase in foot traffic that will benefit all downtown merchants. “My hope for downtown is that we get people walking by and they say, ‘I just happened to be walking by and thought I would stop in. I thought I would stop in to see about your accounting practice. I thought I would stop in to get a drink and have a hamburger,’” she said. “That is what we are waiting for in downtown Richardson.”
For more information about The Core District, visit www.richardsoncoredistrict.com.
