Business View Magazine | March 2019

181 investment includes a performing arts center, a museum, our first parking deck, significant green space, and public spaces within the area defined as our historic downtown, which in- cludes small pocket parks with formal plazas and place-making amenities where people can gather and socialize.” “We are getting ready to open our second hotel project, downtown,” he continues. “The first, Hotel Florence, was completed about four years ago. It’s a boutique hotel built into an old, historic, four-story building with approxi- mately 70 rooms. It was a $7 million renova- tion, privately funded, that used tax credits and federal and state incentives. The second hotel is opening in February. It is a Hyatt Place Hotel with 100-plus rooms. The city was able to as- semble the land for that private investment project at approximately $15 million.” Over the past few years, the city has also seen the opening of its first downtown brewery and about seven new restaurants. So, local brews, food, and entertainment are all very central to Florence’s downtown redevelopment. Taking advantage of all these new venues, the city hosts, through the Downtown Development Corporation, up to 22 special events a year. “Those typically draw between two and five thousand participants,” Griffin reports. “Those events are all very popular and very diverse, with a very festive environment. So, downtown is doing extremely well. It has won two eco- nomic development municipal achievement awards, which, in our state, we call the Joe