Business View Magazine | October 2020

286 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 Square Park and a lot of new apartments and townhouses going in around that area. There is a TIF (Tax Incremental Financing) district in place that is producing upwards of $3.5 million per year of incremental taxes that we’re churning back into the downtown and incentivizing developers. We’ve recently been working with a firm called Retail Strategies to recruit retail and restaurants to the downtown to help spur more growth in that sector of our economy.” With the University campus just a few blocks away, the goal is to bring students downtown where they can spend money and socialize. One of the purposes of the TIF district is to get the WKU gateway to downtown connection built. That is, now, only about a block from completion and bike lanes are being included in the infrastructure with the new development. Meisel adds, “We’re excited about a project to redevelop the river front on the north side of our downtown. We have a $1.5 million match that we put up for a $750,000 grant. It could