Downtown Killeen business owners mostly optimistic about ‘boom’ despite issues with crime, homelessness

Killeen Daily Herald
By Kevin Limiti | Killeen Daily Herald
October 8, 2023

Avenue C in downtown Killeen was largely empty on Thursday afternoon. But there were signs of potential life in front of some of the empty storefronts.

One store had a sign that said “new business coming soon” and new stores all around the downtown area are sprouting up.

Some business owners in downtown Killeen didn’t think the revitalization effort — a much-talked about subject from the city of Killeen — was years away. They said it was already happening.

Nevertheless, a perception among some people about Killeen’s downtown is that there is a lot of crime and homelessness.

Josie McKinney, owner of Let’s Eat Texas and president of the Downtown Merchant’s Association, disagrees.

“I hear things happening on Rancier (Avenue). I don’t hear anything happening here,” McKinney said. “This is not the same as it was four or five years ago.”

She said a lot of people who worry about things like crime or homelessness in downtown Killeen don’t come there.

McKinney said she had a break-in during the COVID pandemic but said now they have a police officer who checks in with them and other businesses every morning.

She said that since the city took out benches downtown, people who are homeless don’t tend to congregate in front of her store like they used to.

McKinney said she opened the store right before COVID and needed a new vent hood. But the company went out of business and she lost the money to pay for it.

“I was very discouraged,” she said. “I was close to giving up.”

She said she did meal kits in order to keep afloat during that time.

“It really hurt my business,” McKinney said.

However, Let’s Eat Texas received money from the American Rescue Plan Act, which is federal funding for COVID relief, and it helped pay for the vent hood.

She said she was grateful to the city of Killeen for its support.

“Especially since they were right across the street,” McKinney said. “They knew our situation.”

REVITALIZATION HAPPENING

She said the new businesses in the area prove that a revitalization is happening.

“We’re already at 80% capacity for the first time since the ’90s,” McKinney said, explaining that there were all sorts of new businesses cropping up, such as a yoga studio and a boba tea shop. “Everything on Avenue C is under construction”

This includes a local food produce store, which she is opening up soon.

“That’s why I moved to Texas, to be part of the farm-to-table. I wanted to be part of that movement,” she said.

Just before speaking with the Herald, McKinney said she did a lesson with one of the new cooks on how to make mayonnaise.

“I love, love downtown,” McKinney said.

But she said the Hack’s building was one of the biggest complaints locally, despite the fact that it is a landmark.

The city of Killeen is looking to sell off the property.

Recently, the city of Killeen posted an artist’s rendering of what the store could look like if it was renovated.

This starkly contrasted with how the store appeared — a large property fairly run down in downtown Killeen.

City spokesperson Janell Ford said the city has received a lot of interest in the property.

part of the process

Katie Kizito, Killeen’s downtown revitalization director, said in an email that the selling of the building is part of the downtown revitalization.

“By purchasing the property, the City is able to not only move it from ‘vacant’ to ‘occupied,’ but also be intentional about the future of the property,” Kizito said. “Outlined in the RFP (request for proposal) is our intent to follow both the Killeen 2040 (comprehensive plan) and TIRZ #2 plan, “to attract businesses that will improve the quality of life in the area, such as restaurants, attractions, entertainment venues and recreational facilities.”

She said the city often hears about businesses like car washes and dollar stores moving into the area. The RFP process is supposed to help reduce that trend.

“This RFP process allows us to select a business to locate downtown that will be a destination not only for our residents but the surrounding community,” Kizito said. “In our Historic Downtown, we are taking a proactive approach to moving the area forward and improving the quality of life for our city by adding the right business to the area.”

Khandiese Cooper, owner of the downtown photography studio Khanetic Images, said homelessness was a problem in every city.

“We actually have a unit specifically for downtown Killeen, as far as police officers, and they’re doing a fantastic job,” she said.

Cooper reiterated what McKinney said that a police officer comes by every morning to see how they’re doing. She said she feels very safe and has not been the victim of a crime since she opened her studio.

Overall, Cooper said, opening in downtown Killeen has been a great experience.

She said Kizito has been a huge help.

“She’s phenomenal,” Cooper said. “We had to come in, purchase the building ourselves and go through the renovation process, but she helped in the scope of understanding the permits that are required, the inspection services that are provided. She was the go-between for the permits office knowing that ‘hey, this business is coming in.’”

aging buildings an issue

Cooper said the biggest problem in downtown Killeen was not the homeless or crime but the conditions of some of the older buildings.

“You have a lot of these building owners, who have owned properties for 15, 20 years — and haven’t done anything to them,” Cooper said. “And so coming into that process — this was a 1951 diner that hadn’t had any work done to it in almost 20 years — the HVAC and electric system was from 1980. And so it was all finances that had to go into bringing this building up to code, from asbestos in the building from old materials.”

She said a neighboring building had roof damage that was damaging her conjoining wall.

“And so I actually have to get some roof repair done to go ahead and fix the part of his roof that connects with mine, because there’s actively water dripping into the wall between us,” she said. “And so, there’s these older properties where the owners aren’t doing anything to fix their properties. And we’re dealing with the consequence of having newer renovations.”

Cooper also said she knows of a newer business that is next to a building with mold coming out of the front door.

“We’re ready to grow and there’s exciting things coming into this area,” she said. “We’re really trying to build this space into an entertainment and really a community hub. And that’s what a downtown area is supposed to be.”

Councilman Jose Segarra said Friday that owners of those old buildings would have to register and are encouraged either to do something with the buildings or sell them.

“My understanding is that’s the direction we did take. They had to come register their buildings or they’ll pay a fee,” Segarra said.

In Cooper’s case, Segarra said she could reach out to city staff or Kizito.

homelessness a concern

James McCall, owner of McCall’s World Famous Barbeque and Soul Food, had a less optimistic view of the city’s involvement in the downtown area.

Although he acknowledged that the revitalization efforts are making the area look better, he says the issue with homelessness has grown.

“Two years ago, we didn’t have homeless people here, not downtown,” McCall said. “It ain’t just homeless people from Killeen. They’ve got people coming from Copperas Cove, Temple, Waco … You can give them food, you can give them clothes, you can give them whatever. They’re going to take it and sell it to get drugs.”

He also said the city of Killeen’s attention isn’t focused on all business owners.

“I’ve seen several managers, several city councilmen, several mayors — and it’s one of the sorriest group they’ve ever had,” said McCall, who has lived in Killeen for 40 years. “And the real deal is they got their favoritism. They don’t treat all the owners the same.”

He said he used to go downtown in 1979 when he was in the military, and it was filled with more people.

“It was like a strip in Vegas,” McCall said.

But recently he said the city has been wasting money on things for the downtown, including the benches that were taken out.

“They’re saying they’re gonna do this and do that. They just removed benches,” McCall said. “Just four or five years ago they put down those benches … and created a problem with the homeless down there.”

Multiple owners said homeless people used to congregate at the benches.

“It’s a waste of tax money,” he said.

police staffing plans

Pedro Lopez, chief of police for the Killeen Police Department, said in an email that he plans to conduct a “staffing model” in the near future to determine whether all areas of Killeen are covered with patrols sufficiently, including the downtown area.

He also said there are tentative plans to open up a precinct in downtown Killeen. This new precinct, he said, was tied to the new City Hall building, which itself is tied to a bond vote that has been delayed until at least next year.

But he outlined some of the challenges the Killeen Police Department was facing downtown.

“Crime rates are driven by economic conditions such as poverty or lack of housing opportunities, lack of mental health resources, lack of social services programs, and limited resources to address issues as they arise,” Lopez said. “ I believe the Mayor, City Council, and City Manager provide the police department with the necessary resources.”

But he said improvements in technology could help identify spikes in crimes.

“ In the next few months, I will be bringing several initiatives forward to improve the department’s technology posture,” Lopez said. “I have to point out that addressing these obstacles requires a multi-faceted approach from the department, community organizations, social services, and local government.”

He said having a local police presence would be the best way of making people in the area feel safe.

“ The easy answer will be to increase patrols. In a downtown area, foot and bike patrols will be more effective than a patrol car,” Lopez said. “ I would like to see a police storefront located in the downtown area where officers will report to and work out of.”

police and homelessness

As far as homelessness goes, Lopez said it was an issue that needed a police response.

“ Being homeless is not a crime in itself, but law enforcement is often required to respond due to the lack of resources necessary to address the root cause of the problem,” he said.

“Our department is normally called to handle public nuisance calls such as panhandling, public intoxication, or minor incidents involving our homeless population,” Lopez said. “The problem is that we encounter the same person(s) on a daily basis and have no additional resources to treat the root cause which may be poverty, mental illness, or substance abuse.

“A plan to address the underlying ause of homelessness is desperately needed to remove the police from the equation and replace them with experts who can effectively deal with the issues.”

The Friends in Crisis shelter is expected to close in February after it was unable to obtain federal grant money to keep it open, but it is not certain whether this will have an adverse effect on the downtown.

“Any time you remove a resource normally provided by a specific entity, the services provided by that entity has to be replaced,” Lopez said. “It will directly or indirectly impact several agencies (city or non-governmental) that currently assist our unhoused population.”

Segarra said that if the homeless shelter closes down, it is likely the homeless will set up tents and stay in that area, like what happened the last time the shelter closed down in 2019.

“That’s what happened last time. Right now they can only go there (to the shelter) to sleep. They can’t be there congregating during the day,” Segarra said. “But when it shuts down, they’ll set up tents around and in front of it. And a lot of times people will drive by and give them necessities and give them food. In a sense that’s probably easier for them because they have a place to hang out.”

But Segarra said that is only if the potential closure of the homeless shelter is temporary.

“If it’s permanent, we don’t know what direction that will go. We as city leaders will have to figure out a way for that not to happen,” he said.

shelter conversation

Segarra said he assumes the Killeen City Council will have a conversation about the homeless shelter soon.

He said the board of directors for Families in Crisis, the umbrella organization overseeing the Friends in Crisis homeless shelter, should come before the council in an official capacity.

Families in Crisis representatives have said they were in touch with city staff and told the Herald that they did not bring themselves before the council because it could be perceived as being “whiny.”

Friends in Crisis has applied to the city for Community Development Block Grants for the past two years, but was denied funding.

Segarra said holding events downtown would be an important way to show what is available as well as get people to spend money there.

“If we continue to focus our efforts on it, I think it will definitely grow, and as I mentioned, it takes foot traffic,” Segarra said. “We have to do anything we can to bring foot traffic down there ... when we do events, the good thing about it is that it brings awareness.”

In downtown Killeen Thursday, a few people appeared to be homeless, but they were mostly at the bus terminal.

boom anticipated

With so many storefronts yet to be built, downtown appeared to be a work-in-progress. But Mohammad Bahrani, an Austin businessman who owns the former H-E-B property, said last month that the downtown will see a boom in a few years.

Bahrami said he paid approximately $800,000 for the former H-E-B property on Gray Street. “It’s a good price,” he said. “Downtown is going to go up. In four or five years, it’s going to be crazy … the problem is people watch the news and they see crime.”

City Manager Kent Cagle agreed last month about the boom, but concurred with the business owner that it was happening now, thanks in part to a heightened police presence.

“I think the momentums are already building that people are coming back downtown. Investments are being made in real estate in improving the buildings, the half a dozen or so that have gone in have made amazing improvements to the buildings,” he said. “And with our downtown police effort right now, that’s helped.”