Las Cruces's Ghost Town Gives Birth to Bright New Venue

From 'Ghost Town' to
Sparkling Downtown Plaza

Las Cruces, New Mexico Takes
a Long Look Back

by Teal St. Cloud
Noticias Southwest Regional Rover

"It was a ghost town," says Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima of his New Mexico city's pre-80's downtown. There was no way to keep kicking the can down the road, either, he adds. "We knew we had to do something about it."

Prior to the city's 20-year development and planning period,followed by the final construction of the Plaza de Las Cruces, the city's downtown had buildings and streets, the mayor says, but lacked something fundamental to municipal visibility: people.

"In the old days, downtown was so bad nobody would go down there," Miyagishima laments. "Then we realized that, to revitalize, we had to start somewhere."

For Las Cruces leadership, that "somewhere" was the city's downtown.

To enact an effective plan, municipal leaders consulted area businesses, regional specialists, local citizens' groups and other city staff; holding public hearings, studying, and listening, to get things right.

Architect Steve Newby also remembers the start of the !revitalization concept.

"It was a long process," Newby says. "Starting in the 80's, we knew we had to do something about downtown."

That process, says Chris Faivre, deputy director of Las Cruces's Economic Development division, was long and challenging, but worth it. "We were constantly working on revitalizing downtown" for the last 20 years, Faivre says, "but we kept believing it would happen, and it finally did."

Then the breakthrough came.

The area's 2008 Main Street was designated a Tax Increment District, making it possible for resulting revenues to be used for the revitalization project.

"That meant that at least $25 million in tax increment district (TID) funds could be applied to downtown's Master Plan," says Faivre. (Las Cruces's Master Plan was inaugurated in 2004.)

Now, the city's newly redone downtown, say the Plaza's visionaries, could serve as an anchor property not only for Las Cruces, but for the surrounding region as well.

The $5.7 million project was culminated on the day of the Plaza's official opening Sept 17, 2016, and gave rise to a diverse array of local and regional businesses, artisans, community organizations, and others eager to reach an appreciative public.

There are high expectations that downtown's colorful Plaza will energize the local hospitality market, increase tourist traffic, and most of all stimulate local venues on display there: a farmer's market, pizzerias and other food venues, coffee, tea, and wine merchants, artists, jewelers, live music groups, and others.

Las Cruces has changed, says its mayor, and that's no little thing. The City, in truth, pulled off a coup.

"I grew up here," Miyagishima told the crowd at the Plaza's 2016 opening, reflecting on what the success of the Plaza project means.

"I can tell you, today is a historic day," Miyagishima said. "It's right up there with the town's 1849 incorporation."