BID board supports downtown conference center - Stillwater News Press: News (http://www.stwnewspress.com/news/bid-board-supports-downtown-conference-center/article_1bb9d086-52b3-11e5-a7d5-c35faaa12903.html)

Way to go Stillwater. This is a slam dunk. I know the deal will be difficult to close and absolutely require a significant public investment. But this is the right project for Stillwater. Get a facility and hospitality downtown, combine with a more welcoming frontage along 6th Street, and downtown Stillwater will be perfect.

Perhaps another site for this could be the huge parking lot across from City Hall.

Way to go Stillwater. This is a slam dunk. I know the deal will be difficult to close and absolutely require a significant public investment. But this is the right project for Stillwater. Get a facility and hospitality downtown, combine with a more welcoming frontage along 6th Street, and downtown Stillwater will be perfect.

Perhaps another site for this could be the huge parking lot across from City Hall.

That parking lot only takes up a half block. Now if the Stillwater Board of Education wants to get out of its less than great building at 3rd and Main, that would free up a city block. One suggestion, the Stillwater Board of Education could move to the 2nd floor of the Stillwater Community Center after renovated. Currently the second floor is closed and going useless.

So should Stillwater's new conference center be built downtown or on the far west side on W. 6th where there is a concentration of hotels? With or without a conference center, downtown Stillwater could benefit quite well with a mixed use commercial/residential development as in this proposal for the current cleared off downtown square block, which includes a multi level parking garage: Block 34 downtown overview - Stillwater News Press: News (http://www.stwnewspress.com/news/block-downtown-overview/image_712d321c-d24b-11e4-9b7e-5f250259e8ee.html)

From earlier last year, city council hears from two developers: http://files.stillwater.org/agendas/iraagendas/2015/040615_1620/Draft_Minutes_SEDA_032315_SP.pdf

Stillwater does not benefit by hosting its guests out along a relatively unattractive state highway corridor. Stillwater does benefit by bringing its guests into downtown and giving them the best experience that Stillwater can offer.

Do you think guests want Starbucks, or Aspen Coffee; Sonic, or Brooklyn's?