Three-story building with a restaurant, art gallery and 18 lofts breaks ground on an empty West Main Street lot

An empty lot in the middle of downtown Denison is about to get a new building.

The Day family and partners in the project held a groundbreaking Friday, Oct. 23, at 223 W. Main St. for a three-story project that would add a restaurant, a gallery for art and 18 lofts to Main Street, KTEN reported. The station described the investment as worth several million dollars but did not give a figure.

What is planned

The ground floor would hold two businesses:

• Hitch, a restaurant with a western-inspired menu. It comes from the team behind Emily's Kitchen and would be that group's second restaurant downtown.
• Gallery 53, an art gallery. Owner Justin Zimmerman told KTEN he hopes local artists' work will give people another reason to come downtown and keep coming back.

Above them, plans call for 18 lofts. Two would start out as short-term rentals.

Rhonda Borgne of DFA Development told the station that people living downtown add a lot to a district, and that short stays bring in "another audience altogether."

Filling a gap

Denison Main Street Director Donna Dow said a vacant lot of this size tends to make walkers turn around, and that a building there would tie together both sides of the district.

Mayor Robert Crawley credited the Day family with rehabilitating or restoring 13 downtown buildings that now house new businesses and residences. According to KTEN, the family had already put more than $10 million into downtown before this project.

KTEN did not report a construction timeline or an opening date. A rendering of the building was shared by the Denison Chamber of Commerce.

Sources

KTEN