Business View Magazine
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Another moon shot is the redevelopment of Fond du
Lac’s downtown to provide a premiere urban neighbor-
hood for residents, workers, businesses, and tourists.
“Our downtown is very similar to a lot of downtowns
throughout the Midwest,” says Molitor. “In challenging
economic times, it can go one way or the other. It can
become vacant or it can become more vibrant. Down-
town Fond du Lac is clearly resurging and our goal now
is to make it increasingly more vibrant. A downtown is
the heartbeat of a community. When people look at a
community, if they’re thinking of visiting as tourists or
moving to the community, or if a company is thinking of
relocating, they’re going to look at the downtown. So, it
is important that a downtown is thriving and healthy.”
Once again, the city has taken its cue from the Envision
initiative, by putting together a Downtown Exploratory
Committee charged with making recommendations re-
garding improvements to the City Council. “With the Ex-
ploratory Committee, we’re bringing in the public who
want to see downtown thrive,” says Benson. “So, now
we’ve got businesses and residents working in concert
with a vision for the downtown.” One of the initiatives
launched by the city is a $100,000 grant program for
businesses in the downtown Business Improvement
District to help restore some of their buildings’ histor-
ic, exterior facades. “And we’re really starting to see
a change,” she says. “The number of businesses that
are opening or planning to open in the downtown has
been amazing.”
Molitor believes that another way to redevelop down-
town is to create a city Arts District. “Art is no longer a
‘want,’” he says. “It’s a ‘need.’ A community like ours
has to embrace art because art is the outcome of cre-
ativity. And creativity is the engine that is going
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