Town leaders hope a building that once housed a senior center can be a catalyst for change in downtown Edinburgh.
The Town of Edinburgh owns the old senior center, at 105 S. Holland St., but it has sat empty for several years. The two-story building across the street from the town hall, is ripe for revitalization, town leaders say.
The idea is to fix up the building with help from a local couple who wants to open a bakery and coffee shop in the space, setting an example of the kind of revitalization town leaders have long wanted to see, said SaraBeth Drybread, life-long resident and director of the town’s community center.
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The concept is one Drybread picked up as part of the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ Peer Mentorship Program. Edinburgh became the state’s pilot community for this program in September 2019, and is being mentored by Rushville and Wabash town leaders.
Edinburgh was chosen due to its opportunities, such as location, quality parks and Indiana Premium Outlets, a destination. But the town also has many challenges, such as its lackluster downtown, Drybread said. The program is driven by in-person assessments, stakeholder conversations and peer advisement, and organized to expose communities to best practices and the necessary tools to help achieve their community’s vision, according to OCRA.
As part of the program, Edinburgh leaders spent time learning from their mentors, and visited the two towns to see revitalization in action. The mentors visited Edinburgh, too, to share their impressions of the town from a visitor’s perspective, Drybread said.
Also as part of the program, the town will receive a $20,000 matching grant to implement a project idea that came out of the mentorship program. While it is still early in the process, the senior center project is a likely option if all goes according to plan, she said.
Town officials recently considered selling the building, but decided to hit pause for a moment. The town council this week heard Drybread’s proposal and is willing to consider it with a firm business plan in place, they agreed.
Taking the opportunity to facilitate business growth in the town will prevent the building from staying vacant or being used in an undesirable way down the road, she said.
“This will allow us to be a catalyst for growth. If we sell it, someone could make it into apartments or (a storage facility). But by taking control of the building, we take control of its destiny,” Drybread said.
If the idea comes to fruition, the town would continue to own the building, leasing it to the new business owners for $1 at first, then charging rent once the business becomes profitable, she said.
Another hope is that other downtown Edinburgh property owners would follow suit, inspiring them to take action and fix up and fill the roughly 10 empty storefront spaces, Drybread said. Some of the buildings are owned by absentee landlords, she said, but others just haven’t been able to make their businesses what they want them to be.
With landlord buy-in, other buildings could fill up by way of a pitch contest, an idea that has seen success in other communities around the state. In a pitch contest, multiple entrepreneurs submit business plans and the most viable and desirable plan for a space is chosen. Aspire Johnson County + Chamber Alliance holds similar pitch contests, where entrepreneurs pitch ideas for a chance to win $1,000 grants.
Edinburgh’s attractions are outside of town. Edinburgh Premium Outlets and the Edinburgh Sports Complex attract countless families to the community for shopping and softball tournaments, but they rarely venture downtown, Drybread said. There’s not reason to—yet, she said.
When the John R. Drybread Community Center opened in 2018, the goal was the same, to bring more people downtown, improve the town’s reputation and be a driver of growth. The downtown community center serves as a sort of chamber of commerce for the town. With Drybread at the helm, the town successfully secured the inaugural spot in the state’s peer mentorship program and is holding more downtown events.
A few small businesses, such as a pet groomer, hair salon, photography studio, home decor store, gourmet popcorn store and art gallery, sprinkle downtown streets. But there is no coffee shop, and only a handful of restaurants in the town’s core, Drybread said.
“We have thousands of people coming to our sports complex every year but I never see a softball jersey in our downtown,” Drybread said. “They could go to Not Just Popcorn and mom could shop in the home decor store, but there isn’t really many places for them to sit down and have a bite to eat.”
If the project succeeds, and the town continues to improve its messaging about what downtown Edinburgh has to offer, more interest and visitors will surely follow, she said.
Next steps include sitting down with the couple and developing a business plan, determining the costs associated with converting the building to a restaurant as well as who will cover what costs.
Because the town owns the building, it will be up to the council whether to approve those plans.
