Marion celebrates streetscape opening

MARION — A key piece of the revitalization of Uptown Marion, the city’s historical business district, has taken two construction seasons to compete and now has officially reopened Seventh Avenue — the main drag through the district of boutique shops, restaurants and galleries.

The streetscape project and a plaza complement a soon-to-open new Marion Public Library and construction of the Broad and Main buildings, which include residential units and commercial space at the site of the former Marion Square Plaza strip mall.

“The transformation of this area is phenomenal,” Mayor Nick AbouAssaly said at a grand opening event on Thursday evening. “This community is now believing in itself and its potential.”

Dozens of elected officials, city staff, business leaders and residents attended the ribbon cutting, drinking hot cider and eating cookies.

“This is a monumental day for Marion and we couldn’t be more proud,” Marion Chamber of Commerce President Jill Ackerman said. “We’ve heard so much positive feedback on this project and I’m happy to have everyone celebrating with us.”

The work included the reconstruction of Seventh Avenue and sidewalks and the replacement of underground utilities, sanitary sewer, storm sewer and water main on it and its side streets between Eighth and 12th Streets and Sixth and Eighth avenues in the historic district. It also includes the addition of a plaza on 11th Street that stretches near the Uptown Artway.

String lights also were installed in the plaza location. The new design of Seventh Avenue as a “festival street” allows it to be closed for events. This year’s farmers markets have taken full advantage of the new features.

The work closed down major stretches of Uptown during the summers as 250 workers led by general contractor Rathje Construction worked on the project.

“There’s a statistic that you can lose around 30 percent of businesses during a major street project, but we did not lose any,” Uptown Marion Main Street Director Brooke Prouty said, who was also the city’s business liaison during the project.

Nikki Kettelkamp, the owner of SCOUT of Marion, a gift shop, said she always felt supported and kept in the loop by the city and the chamber throughout the construction process. Her business is located right on the new North Plaza.

“It didn’t affect our business as you would think,” she said. “It’s always concerning when construction is blocking your front entrance, but we were really pleased in how we got through it. Everybody from the mayor, council and chamber was so positive and wanted to help.”

And now that the North Plaza is complete, Kettelkamp said she is seeing much more use of the area than before the construction.

“There are so many more people over here now,” she said. “We have people biking by, walking their dogs. I’ve never seen so many people coming out in this area. It’s now such a great place to connect. … We’re also seeing more people coming in from outside of Marion and spending the day here. People are hearing about what’s going on in Marion.”

Marion Chocolate Shop owner Ben Davis agreed with Kettelkamp and said he is excited for the improvements. He also added the city and chamber have been extremely helpful throughout the process.

“We saw increased traffic at each phase completion,” he said. “The amenities being added to Uptown are great for residents of the community and for us local small business owners.”

The goal of the project was to improve the walkability, accessibility and overall safety of the area. Angled parking spaces were added on the south side of Seventh Avenue and the number of accessible parking spaces in the area were tripled.

The city also worked with building and business owners to update fire suppression systems and entrances for disabled people.

The $6.9 million project was funded by the local-option sales tax and bonding through the City’s Capital Improvement Program.

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