PROJECT DESTINATION
Project Destination
As we look towards the future of Grimes in regards to the downtown area, we would like to make our area a “destination”. We want to give people a reason to come to Grimes from outside of the community. We need to make it a priority to identify a way to drive business to the downtown area from within Grimes as well as from outside of Grimes.
Creating a theme for the downtown area is the best way to accomplish our mission. Since the City of Grimes is named after the third governor of Iowa, James W. Grimes, a theme should be created around this little known fact. Not only can we leverage the fact that the city was named after Governor Grimes, we should come together and create an area dedicated to all the governors since Iowa became a state in 1846. To further enhance the vision to create a destination area for the city of Grimes, the downtown area should be given a name. It is proposed that this name be the “Governors District”.
Governors District
We would first have to decide what would entail the “Governors District". It would be expected to cover about a 15 to 20 square block area. The diagram below is just one idea for boundaries within the district. It would be expected that these boundaries would be expanded.
Grimes Village
The “Grimes Village" would start within the 200 block of South Main as recommended by the IDED Main Street Assessment team. It would be expected that this area would grow dramatically over time to include many other blocks.
Water Tower Square
The water tower area could be used to our advantage. The area could be cleaned up and events would be held around them. One idea is to paint a “Governors District" theme on the newer water tower.
