If Downtown Poplar Bluff and the Three Rivers Board of Realtors have their way, the Poplar Bluff’s downtown area will be a hub of activity again. All they believe is needed is to show off those hidden gems that are the buildings that make up the downtown area.
It all began with a phone call from Morgan Mcintosh, Downtown Poplar Bluff executive director, to the Cape Girardeau Old Town Cape Director. Back at the end of March, they held a downtown vacant property open house, where vacant commercial buildings were available to be toured and were available for sale or lease.
“It’s been successful in other areas when they did similar things with commercial properties, so I contacted the Three Rivers Board of Realtors and told them I’d really like to try to do something similar here, and they thought it was a great idea” McIntosh said.
So, from 3-6 p.m. on Thursday, June 10, the Three Rivers Board of Realtors will be hosting open houses for businesses for lease or rent in the downtown area.
Todd Henson, president of the Three Rivers Board of Realtors, explained the event.
“It’s a chance for Realtors to showcase the development that’s going on downtown, recent events and future developments as far as new businesses and coming in. Obviously, there’s a lot of people getting involved in downtown and some exciting stuff is happening, so we’re just trying to showcase that as Realtors ...the different opportunities we can provide for future investors in our area,” Henson said.
Henson continued, “There will be tours from local businesses, like the Rodgers Theatre. They’re going to have people going through.Iit’s obviously a historic theater that people have interest in, but people can’t always make their events and dates, so they are going to have that open, and a few other businesses are offering tours as well. We’ve reached out to other local businesses that are going to showcase what they have going on and what they’ve done to improve the downtown area.”
The event will begin at Foxtrot Coffee, where maps of participating locations will be available, as well as a cup of coffee courtesy of The Bank of Missouri. The event will wrap up at Haffy’s with a Haffy Hour at 6 p.m.
McIntosh is excited about the potential downtown has to offer.
“There’s a buzz going on, and the downtown area is starting to grow, and we have a lot of people really interested. I think here in the near future, we’re going to see it start to turn around really quickly and grow.”