There has been a lot of federal and state grant money flowing through Jamestown over the past couple of years — but a $20,000 application to the New York Main Street Program could be particularly impactful if the city receives it.

Despite all the money flowing into the city some buildings in the heart of downtown Jamestown remain vacant or, at best, under-utilized. There has to be a reason for this — old wiring, poor heating and ventilation systems, an outdated look or even structural issues may be keeping people away. The Building Reuse and Feasibility Analysis could help provide some of those reasons and allow property owners and city officials to collaborate on solutions.

A 2022 Jamestown Renaissance Corporation Downtown Accelerator report notes vacancies take a toll on the overall attractiveness of downtown and that the potential of Jamestown’s sidewalks can be greatly enhanced by tackling the perception of vacancy. We’d argue the vacancy issue goes beyond simple perception. When a building is vacant for years on end it decreases the value of previous investments in new facades and the work some business owners have done to update their spaces.

Of course, there is one major issue with the type of analysis the city wants to undertake — property owners have to be on board. Past efforts to gather simple information about downtown buildings was met with skepticism by downtown building owners, which was unfortunate because the efforts had been aimed at helping market vacant spaces. If building owners choose not to participate in the building reuse study, it becomes more difficult to help them make the investments necessary in their buildings to make them more attractive to new tenants.

For a band to make music all of the musicians have to be playing the same tune at the same time. The problem downtown is we have some property and business owners playing a song, some are tuning their instruments and some haven’t even shown up yet. It’s no wonder the music from downtown could sound better. It’s time for the rest of the band to show up — and the Building Reuse and Feasibility Analysis is as good a time as any.