TEMPLE, Texas — The revitalization of Downtown Temple has been underway for some time, but the city is now one step closer to finishing up the final touches. Central Texans could not be more excited about the makeover.
"You see the development of Waco and Georgetown," Rigo Maldonado, Salon Manager and full-time stylist at Alchemy Salon, said. "It's kind of exciting to see finally something happening with Downtown Temple."
"Everything's flourishing around here," Marcus Cruz, resident of Temple for 28 years, said. "I can take my kids out here, we walk around five different shops and everything."
The historic Hawn Hotel and Arcadia Theater have been closed since 1978, but the two buildings are just a few of the many spots that will be completely transformed by the summer of 2023.
"It has been a little slow going it seems like for the past year and four months that I've been here, but all of a sudden within the past like two or three months, it seems like things are popping up all over the place," Maldonado said.
The City of Temple and the Waco-based Turner Brothers Development have partnered up for the new Hawn Plaza Transformation. The Hawn Plaza buildings consist of the Hawn Tower, Hawn West and Arcadia Theater.
Hawn West will have 26 one bedroom apartments with 14 on the first floor and 12 on the second. They will range in size as well as price depending on how big the apartment is.
Hawn Tower will be the former hotel with 31 one and two bedroom apartments from the second to the ninth floor. The first floor will have a new Union Crossing Food floor where there will be nine food stalls. The city says this gives small restaurant businesses the opportunity to start somewhere.
The plaza will also feature retail, dining and office spaces as well as a privately-owned and operated performance and events hall. The renovated Arcadia will host music and comedy performances.
The Hawn Plaza isn't the only makeover Central Texans will be seeing. The project is all part of a new downtown city center that also includes street improvements, landscaping and a downtown parking garage.
"People might say, 'Oh, well, this took forever,' but the reality is, we wanted to make sure that we were doing everything right, so we were not only giving you something new but revitalizing something that you know people who have lived in Temple for 30 plus years loved when they had just moved here," Allison O'Connor, Public Relations Specialist for the City of Temple, said. "This was really just a great opportunity to not only cater to more people moving to the city, but also find them a place where they're going to be you know, pretty much within walking distance of a lot of the events and experiences that are happening."
For more information about the Hawn Plaza, click here.