We’ve long thought it was important to have someone whose sole focus is downtown Jamestown.

So we’re encouraged by the seeming reinvigoration of the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation announced earlier this week by the non-profit’s board after six months of inactivity that began last June. This version of the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation is stripped down, notably with no mention of housing and neighborhoods that was part of the JRC’s mission for roughly 15 years before the 2025 shutdown. Also not mentioned is events, which had been part of the group’s mission since merging with the Downtown Jamestown Development Corporation.

Instead, the JRC’s focus will be improving storefronts and targeting high-impact redevelopment, redeveloping key sites for catalytic investment, supporting downtown residential growth and mixed-use development. JRC is also looking to add a Director of Downtown Revitalization to its paid staff – though, to be fair, the position is the only paid staff at this point. The JRC is also looking for new board members and members of its Urban Core Committee.

We’re all for filling downtown’s vacant shops. But no one should be under the illusion that putting some words on paper and hiring a new position means downtown will suddenly resemble the downtown Jamestown many remember from their youth. We’ve had groups responsible for downtown development for decades now that have had varying levels of success.

This new iteration of the JRC needs to be different. If its focus is going to be solely on downtown storefronts, redevelopment, residential growth and mixed-use development, then the organization will need to find ways to bring in outside dollars that augment its foundation funding. At one point JRC was a leader in upper floor residential development downtown. That work wasn’t cheap, though it did lead to the addition of some outstanding new living space downtown. JRC and DJDC had interesting programs to help small businesses open downtown that may be worth revisiting now. But the type of redevelopment that the JRC seems to be making part of its mission now will be worthwhile – and expensive.

Perhaps most importantly, whoever the director of downtown revitalization ends up being will have to be proactive, not reactive. The JRC and its foundation partners won’t be effective on this new mission if the downtown revitalization position waits for developers to come to the JRC. We’ve said before that development isn’t easy. One of the reasons for that is that the best development officials are part carnival barker and part corporate executive.

Finding the right person to lead its new efforts is incredibly important for the JRC as it moves into this next phase of its work. Otherwise, we’ll be staring at the same unfinished painting of downtown Jamestown that we’ve seen for the past several years.