Last week, Ironton officials began considering how to get the fourth floor of the city building developed without costing the city a bunch of money it simply doesn’t have right now.

Monday, August 21, 2000

Last week, Ironton officials began considering how to get the fourth floor of the city building developed without costing the city a bunch of money it simply doesn’t have right now.

On the list of possible solutions is allowing companies that are interested in the building to foot the bill for the remodeling themselves.

And that is a good plan right now. The city just doesn’t have the extra money to get the remodeling work done. A tenant that is interested in developing the floor itself would be the perfect choice right now.

However, there is another option and one that might make a little more sense.

The first floor of the city building is full of empty storefronts right now. For some reason, the city has a hard time keeping tenants in those spots.

Perhaps, rather than concentrating on the fourth floor, the city should set a goal of recruiting enough new businesses to fill those empty spots – and then developing an incentive package to keep them there.

Developing the fourth floor is a worthwhile goal. That could be a nice revenue source for the city when the project is complete. However, right now, anything that puts an additional strain on the city’s coffers is just not realistic.

For now, let’s make filling the first floor the goal. The fourth floor can wait.