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Calendar of Events for December
Discover the charm of Christmas in downtown Abilene at the 31st Annual City Sidewalks celebration hosted by the Abilene Downtown Association. Merchants, museums and galleries will open their decorated doors for a full week of holiday cheer, fun activities and shopping. Highlights include a parade of lights, lighting of a 62-foot Christmas tree, musical performances and free goodies. Full schedule of events: DEC. 2-11 Contest: Downtown businesses are competing for best decorated…
Filed Under: Downtown Highlights
Downtown ABI Mural Guide
Ever wonder how many murals are on display around Downtown ABI, and where exactly you can find them? We’ve done the work for you! Thanks to our friends at AbileneScene, each mural in Downtown ABI is listed below. Take the day to learn about and enjoy Downtown ABI’s urban art with a tour through our mural guide. Or, find that one mural you’ve always wanted to use as an Instagram…
Filed Under: Blog, Downtown Highlights
Downtown Abilene Launches Interactive Map for $100M Development Pipeline
ABILENE, Texas – The Abilene Chamber of Commerce Downtown Initiative (Downtown ABI) today launched an interactive map to track and promote the $100M+ in real estate development projects taking shape in the center city. The new tool may be found on the Map page of this website. Spearheaded by an anticipated $66M, 206-room, four-star convention center hotel, expected to open in late 2021 or early 2022, downtown Abilene is seeing…
Filed Under: Blog
New life for an Old Building – Amendment 21
When we decided to renovate the Old Nichols Battery building into Amendment 21 in early 2017, we didn’t have any similar industry anchors other than The Mill. At that time, downtown, and more specifically the S.O.D.A District didn’t have any growth projections to go off of, but that didn’t stop us from moving forward with creating a prohibition-themed whisk(e)y bar downtown. Since we opened in April of 2018, we’ve had…
Filed Under: Downtown Highlights
Thriving Downtown: A Foundation’s Point of View
The Community Foundation of Abilene exists to help donors make a lasting impact on the charitable causes that matter to them. Many of the endowment funds we manage make grants to local nonprofits, and part of our mission is to provide services to help strengthen those nonprofits. So, why do we care about a thriving downtown? A healthy downtown is a key component to a vibrant, economically-strong city as a…
Filed Under: Downtown Highlights
Create Spaces where Life Happens – 201 Mesquite
As a native Abileneian, I have fond memories of Downtown Abilene. Today I am creating new memories such as taking my grandkids to the Paramount Theatre or racing pinewood cars at a Cub Scout meeting at the 201 Event Center. Just a few years ago, I was driving down North 2nd near Mesquite when I noticed a “For Sale” sign taped to the side of an old building. On a whim,…
Filed Under: Downtown Highlights
Vagabond Pizza
Let’s take a little time hop… think back to 2011, just eight short years ago. Food trucks were scarce. We didn’t have any wineries or breweries in town. Downtown was, ahem, “lacking amenities.” Nevertheless, various folks disregarded “the way it’s always been done” and started new and exciting enterprises that now feel like the fabric of Abilene. I might be a bit biased, but I like to think Vagabond Pizza…
Filed Under: Downtown Highlights
Live, Work, Play…Building an 18-Hour Downtown
An 18 hour district. A place where people spend more than just eight hours behind a desk or two hours at a performance and then drive home. That’s what the Chamber’s Downtown Initiative is striving to create in our center city. A strong residential component is vital to fulfilling this vision. It’s why we’ve been focused over the last five months on bringing multifamily residential developers to town and why…
Filed Under: Blog