For more than four months, there’s been a very big shadow over Downtown Jonesboro as city officials have attempted to determine how to deal with the buckling building formerly known as Citizens Bank.

In January, the Jonesboro City Council passed a resolution to proceed with the demolition of the building, entering into an agreement with Nabholz Construction to provide construction management services for the project and allocating $3.25 million for the demolition of the structure, located at 100 W. Washington Ave.

For businesses in Downtown Jonesboro, especially those located on Main Street, sales began to slump as soon as the intersection of Main and Washington was blocked in September to protect the public from possible injury should the building collapse. Most of those businesses are locally owned and do not have the deep pockets of chain restaurants or big box stores. They support their family and their staff with revenue generated by their small business. That has proven to be difficult to do when Main Street is blocked for more than four months.
Hopefully, demolition on the bank building can begin in February; however, officials say it will likely take months to get traffic on Main Street flowing again. With some downtown businesses struggling to hang on, we believe it’s definitely time to show Downtown Jonesboro some love.

During February, Occasions will be working with other businesses in Downtown Jonesboro, as well as city officials, in an effort to promote businesses that are feeling the impact of lost revenue. Our goal is to bring more people downtown to show some love to locally-owned businesses and to share our love for downtown by celebrating the month of love. It’s a simple gesture that we hope will grow organically and become bigger and better each year.

For those who love Downtown Jonesboro, we hope you will make plans to visit downtown often during February. Plan now to purchase gifts for your Valentine, meet friends for lunch, see a play, visit a local art gallery, enjoy a romantic dinner and more. There are countless ways to include downtown in your plans this month, and your patronage will help support locally-owned businesses during a challenging season that no one anticipated.

Occasions will also be promoting contests throughout the month as we attempt to bring hearts to Downtown Jonesboro (both visually and physically) this month to share the love with locally-owned businesses. Be sure to follow us on social media for updates.

Love is in the air, and we hope you will make Downtown Jonesboro a big part of your celebration.