Yorgos in the first block of North Queen Street is one of dozens of city restaurants and businesses that have renovated and expanded in the past year. Photo Courtesy Lancaster Newspapers When it ranked Lancaster's preparations for a convention center last summer, the James Street Improvement District gave "amenities/entertainment" its highest grade: A-.
Is that grade justified?
Marshall Snively, deputy director and downtown marketing guru for the James Street Improvement District, believes it is.
"In terms of entertainment, we're well positioned," he says, citing the Fulton Opera House, Pennsylvania Academy of Music, Clipper Magazine Stadium and Gallery Row.
The downtown also features Central Market and several museums. The new Thaddeus Stevens/Lydia Hamilton Smith museum will become part of the convention center complex.
But when it comes to night life, Snively notes, Lancaster could use some help.
Annie Bailey's Irish Pub and Restaurant has been popular since it opened two years ago this week on East King Street, virtually next door to the convention center/hotel site. It needs company.
Lancaster has several nightclubs, but Snively believes it could use more adult entertainment. He specifically refers to piano bars and jazz clubs.
"We're not a vibrant 18-hour destination," he says.
But that may be changing.
Snively counts 59 new, renovated or expanded businesses in the city's downtown and northwest sections since last June. Twenty-four businesses have closed in the area during that time.
Snively says he receives 10 to 20 calls a month from entrepreneurs in the region asking about properties available for new restaurants, nightclubs and other ventures.
"We're pretty confident we're going to see an increase in entertainment," he notes.
But the city is not quite ready for prime time, according to several observers.
Todd Bressi, an urban-design consultant from Philadelphia who appreciates Lancaster's varied architecture and art galleries, says it won't take much to get there.
"Folks who come there for a convention will find a lot of neat things," he says. "You need a few more restaurants and a bit more of a retail mix on some streets. It only takes a few entrepreneurs to start sending the right signals."
It also will take some training of personnel, says the Lancaster Alliance's Jack Howell.
"You can have great restaurants, but if a person is greeted with apathy or rudeness, their whole experience suffers," Howell says. He recommends hospitality training for downtown service workers.
"We can't close up at 5 o'clock every night and stay closed all day Monday," observes Tim Smedick, director of the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County.
Snively agrees. "Retailers and restaurant owners are starting to look at longer hours. I don't think that will start until the center opens and they see more people on the street."
How will conventioneers find all these places?
The James Street Improvement District has produced a new brochure that includes a map locating scores of destinations. That map is reproduced in "Lancaster ONE," a guidebook filled with photos of city museums, restaurants and businesses.
Howell says the Lancaster Campaign will update the vehicular and pedestrian sign system. It will also update the kiosks and podium map stations strategically located around town to reflect changes since the signs were installed in 2003.
Additional map destinations will include Gallery Row on North Prince Street, College Row on Harrisburg Avenue, the convention center and hotel, and new parking garages.
Crucial to the information flow will be an improved Downtown Lancaster Visitors Center, which is operated by the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The chamber is reassessing the visitors center, which is in the Southern Market Center at Vine and South Queen streets.
"The whole visitors' experience, from soup to nuts, is being evaluated," says Chamber president Tom Baldrige. "We want to ensure that we're maximizing the experience of visitors."
Smedick believes that the visitors center, beyond directing visitors to specific shopping or entertainment locations, must emphasize the unique nature of downtown Lancaster.
"When people come downtown, they not only want to experience food and shopping," he says. "They want ambiance, and our ambiance is in our architecture."
Mayor Gray has no argument with that.
"The places that people are going to want to visit are the places where people want to live," he says. "We've got to be sure we keep our sense of place."
