By Hailey Andersen
The city of Bryan is redeveloping an area of town and you have the chance to influence the outcome. The Bryan Midtown project will stretch down South College Avenue over to Finfeather Road, and cut off at the Bryan College Station city limit and historic Downtown Bryan.
As the city of Bryan moves deeper into their planning stages, they remain eager for community input. Telling a story and giving the people of B/CS a unique place to enjoy is the picture city of Bryan Assistant Director of Development Martin Zimmermann and Principal and CEO of Velocity Group Daniel Hintz are trying to paint.
“There are places that are kind of everywhere,” says Zimmermann. “Everyone has an experience with a Walmart, Sonic Drive-In, and a Whataburger. Then there are places that are nowhere, right? And we’ve seen the kind of endless buttering of suburban housing. But how do we create a somewhere?”
The people involved in making Bryan Midtown happen are all ears to new suggestions. The voice of the people, and getting them involved in storytelling by using something as minor as the hashtag #BryanMidtown, can make all the difference in getting the ball rolling, according to Zimmermann.
“We have these great storytelling tools in our pocket,” Hintz says. “You’re in a restaurant or anywhere else, and you’re like, ‘I love this plate of food, I love this environment, this is a really cool experience.’ Guess what taking a picture and putting it up there does? It informs. Oh! You want more of that type of experience, that’s awesome! Let’s try to bake that into our plan.”
Having a drive to succeed and a passion to make Midtown happen, Hintz continues to preach the importance of storytelling and spreading the word about Bryan Midtown.
“There are great stories here in Bryan,” says Hintz. “If you build off of that and enhance that, people start coming out because they want to participate in success. There has been an enormous amount of successes, and I think in this Midtown area the other big question we are asking is, ‘What is the experience people want in Midtown?’ When you say downtown … you have an image in your head. You know what that experience is. It’s not just the buildings. … It’s very much experiential.”
Allowing the community to create an image of what they want Bryan Midtown to become is the next step in the planning. Hintz claims it is as easy as adding a hashtag when you go to post a photograph of your next cup of coffee.
So, next time you have an idea for the Bryan Midtown project, be sure to post it on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook with #BryanMidtown. If you want to know more about the Bryan Midtown plan or how to get involved, visit www.bryantx.gov/midtown.
