Thanks to Kyle Clayton for running this commentary on Third and Main, and to Mr. Thorgensen (DUDE) for his alt opinion in favor of selling it. Selling the property wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if only we knew what we were getting in return. Currently there is no planning in place for development and “vitalization” of downtown. So, while DUDE might envision a large, multi-use building on the lot, someone else might think it a good place for a used car lot.
What IS known and well documented are the benefits enjoyed by buildings adjacent to and near a town center. DUDE owns several… and would conceivably stand to gain far more than if some ugly, discordant, or competing business buys that lot. And what’s good for DUDE has come to be seen as good for Haines.
It’s funny how one person might look at a property and see beauty and potential while another sees only ugliness and emptiness. Nature abhors a vacuum; a developer abhors an empty lot. But the reason it has stayed empty all these years has not only been, as he says, controversy, but also lack of planning, and leadership unable or unwilling to adopt it.
Larry Larson (MINDLESS) (no wannabe)