Plans duscussed for new Lincoln Towne Center renovations
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The monthly Main Street Cultural District meeting, held Tuesday morning, also served as a public meeting to discuss renovations to the Lincoln Towne Center, which would turn the building into a restaurant venue, concert and banquet center.
“We hope to bring back some of the nostalgia and look of the building that we used to have,” said Russ McCullough of The McKel Group, the firm in charge of the renovations.
The building, which is part of the Main Street Cultural District, is located on Main Street, east of Lucullan’s Italian Grill, 400 Main St., and is the former site of JC Penny.
The developers have not purchased the building yet, and said their option-to-buy contract, which gives them exclusive rights to purchase the property, runs out at the end of the month.
The purpose of the Tuesday presentation was to see if downtown business-owners and residents supported the project and parking garage that would be built in conjunction with the renovations, said Tim Coble, president of the committee for the Main Street Cultural District.
McCullough said they would like to get all four levels of the Lincoln Towne Center “back into action,” describing plans to make the main floor into a restaurant area, the second floor into a banquet and conference center, and to add a concert venue under the pitched roof area.
“We do not have any of these venues lined up, but it is important to make this building a destination-type building,” McCullough said.
McCullough described adding a pavilion outside that could house a farmer’s market and a stage area with a terrace and a water feature, but said they are currently checking into how those changes might affect traffic flow.
The parking ramp, which would add about 150 parking stalls, would be one-and-a-half- to 2-stories high, and could also be designed to work as a barrier to railroad track noise, McCullough said.
Councilman Jim Popken said he is skeptical of the project because it will use a lot of taxpayer dollars and his concern is the extent of the support for it.
“I don’t want to look back in a couple of years and see that the downtown support wasn’t there,” he said.
“We hope to bring back some of the nostalgia and look of the building that we used to have,” said Russ McCullough of The McKel Group, the firm in charge of the renovations.
The building, which is part of the Main Street Cultural District, is located on Main Street, east of Lucullan’s Italian Grill, 400 Main St., and is the former site of JC Penny.
The developers have not purchased the building yet, and said their option-to-buy contract, which gives them exclusive rights to purchase the property, runs out at the end of the month.
The purpose of the Tuesday presentation was to see if downtown business-owners and residents supported the project and parking garage that would be built in conjunction with the renovations, said Tim Coble, president of the committee for the Main Street Cultural District.
McCullough said they would like to get all four levels of the Lincoln Towne Center “back into action,” describing plans to make the main floor into a restaurant area, the second floor into a banquet and conference center, and to add a concert venue under the pitched roof area.
“We do not have any of these venues lined up, but it is important to make this building a destination-type building,” McCullough said.
McCullough described adding a pavilion outside that could house a farmer’s market and a stage area with a terrace and a water feature, but said they are currently checking into how those changes might affect traffic flow.
The parking ramp, which would add about 150 parking stalls, would be one-and-a-half- to 2-stories high, and could also be designed to work as a barrier to railroad track noise, McCullough said.
Councilman Jim Popken said he is skeptical of the project because it will use a lot of taxpayer dollars and his concern is the extent of the support for it.
“I don’t want to look back in a couple of years and see that the downtown support wasn’t there,” he said.
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