Downtown Huntington ‘Renaissance’ Becoming Real and Tangible

Downtown Huntington ‘Renaissance’ Becoming Real and Tangible

Written by Aaron-Michael Fox.

Photo by Jayne Russell-Wells. 

 

If you haven’t been to the Downtown Huntington Central Business District over the last decade, there has been remarkable change with nearly every block seeing redevelopment of some kind. The downtown neighborhood is absolutely chock-full of local restaurants, shops, and boutiques. This is the result of purposeful effort by many community leaders.

 

“We want our downtown to be a destination location,” Mayor Steve Williams said. “It is affirmed constantly when people who visit for the first time or the first time in several years exclaim how surprised they are regarding the beauty of our community and how safe and comfortable people make them feel during their visit.”

 

“It’s incredible to think how much things have changed since the 80’s and 90’s, when the Super Block was king and dormant,” said Downtown Councilwoman Tia ‘Fix’ Rumbaugh. “And how vibrant and constant the new construction of the last 2 years has been and will continue to be as 4th Avenue and Hal Greer [Boulevard] see incredible small and large business developments through 2026, thanks to investments and community partnerships heralded by Marshall University President Brad Smith.”

 

Mayor Williams took office on January 1, 2013, and so far, 103 downtown businesses have either opened, expanded, or extensively remodeled since then (see full list below).

 

The explosion of new businesses over the last decade shows that our city government has incentivized investing in our downtown neighborhood.

 

“What has developed in Huntington is precious, and we must do all we can to protect the hard-earned investment of our business owners,” said Williams. “That is why we have eliminated business taxes for retail, restaurants, and manufacturing businesses and reduced business taxes by half for service-based businesses.”

 

You read that right—Huntington city B&O taxes are currently ZERO PERCENT on manufacturing, restaurants, and retail with most other businesses hovering around one percent.

 

While this topic will be hotly debated through the coming months, the downtown business owners I’ve spoken with say that the city tax structure is not a hindrance to business.

 

From what I’m hearing, the biggest deterrents to business in downtown Huntington are state bureaucracy, vagrancy, banks not approving many loans through the Small Business Administration, plus difficulty finding a dependable workforce that can pass a drug test.

 

Despite these hurdles, many in the city leadership maintain a hopeful vision for Huntington’s business future.

 

“There are so many multi-million-dollar construction and renovation projects slated for downtown by private and public entities that I wager anyone who hasn’t visited Huntington in the last decade or two won’t hardly recognize it by 2026,” Councilwoman Rumbaugh said. “It is not the sleepy, disconnected, and empty downtown of my childhood of the 80s and 90s.”

 

A positive outlook for business in the downtown neighborhood is incredibly important since it is the economic engine of the entire metro. Without growing businesses, we don’t have enough jobs and our population, tax base, and regional influence will decline; which will put Huntington’s future in peril. Vote wisely.

 

List of downtown businesses that have opened, expanded, or extensively remodeled since January 2013:

 

Mountaineer Weddings
Mr. Smoke vape shop

 

 

 

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