Nearly 30 years ago, Dowagiac’s Fred Mathews and other local business owners set out to reinvent the city’s downtown, with the goal of restoring the corridor as the crown jewel of the community.

They had quite the herculean task laid in front of them, which included working with lawmakers to relocate a state highway out the downtown streets, tearing down old buildings, creating new roadways and sidewalks and restoring nearly every single storefront located on Front Street.

The fruit of their labors was the reinvention of a central business district, the creation of place where people continue to shop, eat, live and gather to this day.

Picking up where Mathews left off has been Mayor Don Lyons and members of the Dowagiac City Council, who have adopted the optometrist’s vision and expanded it to other parts of the downtown district.

On Thursday, local leaders celebrated the transformation of another portion of downtown, hosting a ribbon cutting for the recently completed construction along Commercial Street and portions of Division Street. In spite of the dreary weather, nearly 100 city officials, Dowagiac business owners and other representatives — including Mathews and his wife, Thelda — attended the ceremony.

The ceremony capped off nearly six months of construction — and nearly six years worth of planning by city hall, Lyons said in his remarks prior the ribbon cutting.

“This project has gone a long ways toward putting Dowagiac forward as a truly progressive city,” Lyons said.

The construction fulfills the vision the mayor and other city officials had of beautifying the entryways into downtown, through eliminating old, blighted structures which marred downtown skyline and replaced them with green space and parking lots that improve both the aesthetics and the accessibility of the area.

Over the last several years, the city has acquired numerous commercial buildings and residences along Commercial Street and the surrounding area in preparation for construction. After months of brainstorming plans with area engineering firm Wightman & Associates, crews broke ground on construction in July.

The centerpiece of the project is the creation a new plaza in front of the Beckwith Theatre on Commercial Street, which contains parking spaces, green space and benches.

The city also laid down brick paving along portions of Commercial Street to help control the speed of traffic to make the road more pedestrian friendly, as well as built an island near the Division Street intersection to improve visibility and ease of access onto the roadway.

Crews also improved several existing parking spaces along Division Street, and transformed the lot once occupied by the “big grey” Goerlich Building into green space.

Several brick columns were also built as part of the project, which will be used to display public art. The city plans to put out a call to artists to submit works for the structures early next year, in hopes of getting submissions back by spring, Lyons said.

“I think it will make quite a dramatic entrance into our downtown,” Lyons said.