Workers with Spallinger Millwright Services adjust the placement of a steel archway as it dangles overtop its pedestals. The new steel lattice structure crosses Spring Street near its intersection with Main Street in downtown Lima.
David Trinko | The Lima News
LIMA — There isn’t another archway overtop a road in Lima like the one now looking out over Spring Street.
City and business leaders hope the same can be said some day about the revitalization efforts now under way near the city’s center.
“The arch will welcome citizens and guests down Spring Street to enjoy the arts, dining, shopping and music,” said John Heaphy, the founder and president of Good Foods Inc., which owns the building under renovation at Spring and Main, along with the Old City Prime restaurant across the street.
Crews and equipment from Spallinger Millwright Services lifted the arch onto its concrete pillars Monday morning. It’s more than steel lattice. It’s a symbol of what’s possible.
“Right now, what you’re looking at is $1 million of public investment, coming alongside these private investments to transform this area,” said Lima Mayor Sharetta Smith. “But this is just the beginning.”
Before long, street lamps will change, and bistro lights will string between one side of Spring Street and the other. Lighting will be added to trees, with music playing, Heaphy said. His new “Spring & Main” building should open in May. It’s slated to include a new Casa Lu Al restaurant on the first floor, along with Corner Pins duckpin bowling, Nonno’s Cellar, Vista Taco and a new Old City Prime Upper Lounge.
Lima received a $1 million grant to invest in streetscape improvements in the 100 block of Spring Street, which should be completed in February. The block of Spring Street will reopen later this year, but the design will make it possible to close the block for events.
“It’s going to be a beautifully landscaped area,” Heaphy said. “That’s a beautiful example of what we can all accomplish working together.”
The next phase of the streetscape project focuses on Central Avenue from Elm Street to Wayne Street, near the recently opened Greater Lima Region Park and Amphitheater. The estimated $4 million investment is currently in design development, with bid openings expected in late April with construction happening in the second half of 2024 and the first half of 2025, according to the City of Lima.
The county also recently opened up parking across the street from the project to the general public, with 160 parking spaces now available in front of Allen County Children Services from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Friday and all day on weekends, except when there are shows at Veterans Memorial Civic Center.
Plans are still under way for the nearby Lima Community Aquatic Center, scheduled to be built near Spartan Stadium starting later this year.
State Sen. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, congratulated the people who worked together to help revitalize Lima’s city center, noting that he and Heaphy played on the Lima Central Catholic football team together years ago.
“A lot of the interesting things that are happening in this city, in what I call the migration back downtown, are driven by people who grew up here or at least spent most of their lives here,” Huffman said. “This town should be the capital of western Ohio.”
Heaphy said he felt a responsibility to help return Lima’s downtown to some of its former glory as an oil boomtown in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
“We look at those photos at times and are envious of those glory days in Lima,” Heaphy said. “It seems to be our generation’s responsibility to restore these buildings and the history of them for generations to know.”
Reach David Trinko at 567-242-0467 or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
