Bloomin’ in Bell: Temple

Historic properties get new life as downtown undergoes a renaissance

By RACHEL STRICKLAND and WHITNEY THERIOT | Photos by SKEEBO and courtesy of the TEMPLE CHAMBER

Anyone who’s been to downtown Temple lately can attest to the fact that things are rapidly changing. Over the last decade, downtown has gained renewed attention from public officials and private investors in continual improvements and investments to attract small businesses, restaurants and shops and reignite the soul of the city.

“A rising tide lifts all ships,” said Bo Harvey, co-owner of Treno Pizzeria and Taproom, a local restaurant on First Street in Downtown Temple. “The city was reinvesting in downtown, and we saw potential to invest in an offering that lifts the community.”

Treno opened in fall 2020. It serves artisan-style wood-fired pizza and fresh salads made with local greens, among other fresh-food options. The restaurant also offers self-serve beer and wine taps with local craft selections, an in-house coffee shop and roastery called First Street Roasters, an outdoor lawn space with a music stage, a big screen TV, plus two playgrounds.

“My partners and I asked ourselves this question: are we creating places where we want to go and take our kids?” Harvey said. “If our kids are happy, it is a family-friendly place we can picture ourselves and the community enjoying, with the potential to be profitable. It’s a win-win.”

Harvey and his restaurant business partners, Bruce, Jacob and Carleigh Bates, employ nearly 50 people in downtown Temple with two unique restaurant offerings, Treno Pizzeria & Taproom on First Street and Birdcreek Burger Co. on Main Street.

As a Temple Native, Harvey is committed to investing in downtown. He is partially or wholly involved in multiple real estate endeavors, purchasing and refurbishing buildings. These ventures facilitate opportunities for other businesses to locate downtown. The office space in which West, Webb, Allbritton, and Gentry PC, is now located is just one example.

“This community is a gift to my heart. So many have prayed and provided an abundant amount of love and care for myself and my family in our hardest days of John’s illness. They still continue to celebrate the joys of life with me and I treasure this! It’s an honor to live in such a loving community!”
— Nikki Mayo, Temple resident

A crane and scaffolding currently make up part of the downtown cityscape. These signs of progress are part of new public and private investment called the Downtown City Center Project, which is included in the Downtown Master Plan.

One of the largest pieces of the project is Hawn Plaza, which will offer apartments, retail opportunities, and a revitalized multipurpose theater.

Hawn Plaza will give new life to three historic Temple buildings: the Hawn Hotel, the former Sears building, and the Arcadia Theater. Turner Behringer Development, a Waco-based real estate investment and development firm, is taking the lead on these renovations.

The Hawn Hotel, now renamed Hawn Tower, will primarily be reconfigured into 31 spacious apartments, ranging from studio to one- and two-bedroom units. Jonathan Garza, director of development for the firm, says that one of their goals when restoring the hotel was to bring the building back to its original historic glory, while simultaneously making the units themselves modern and stylish, complete with granite countertops and laminate floors. Additionally, the first floor of the building will be converted into usable commercial retail space. The neighboring former Sears building is also undergoing major renovations as a part of this project. Now called Hawn West, its 8,800 square feet are being converted into a mixture of commercial retail space and 26 apartments.

Abandoned for decades, Garza said the nearby Arcadia Theater will soon be able to seat 621 people in a multipurpose performance and event hall. He says there are a lot of folks who have lived in the Temple area for years that have great memories of going to the Arcadia Theater to see movies. “They’ve been waiting to see that building be brought back to life,” he said. And with the renovations going on, Garza predicts that they will see people coming to downtown Temple for the concerts and community events at the theater.

“Temple has had great retail and restaurants, but what it’s been needing is just more people that live in the downtown area,” Garza said.

“There’s infrastructure to bring people from urban areas to the Central Texas area, and so this is giving them the opportunity to live in a downtown environment and have the benefits from some of the larger cities that they’re moving from.”

Garza says Hawn Plaza will encourage people who work in the Temple area to stay after work to support the restaurants, bars and shops.

“The thought becomes, ‘Let’s go downtown and figure out what we’re going to eat when we get there,’ as opposed to just picking a restaurant and driving there [from out of town]. It becomes a place where everyone walks around and checks out all the new things that are going on.”

The overall vision for the revitalized downtown Temple is to give it a more walkable vibe, similar to larger cities, while still maintaining the small-town charm of Central Texas. “The city and the locals have done a great job in making the investment and stepping out on a limb and supporting downtown Temple,” Garza said.

“Moving to Belton as a teenager, I knew that this place was special. It broke my heart when I left in 1986, but I knew that I would return someday. As an adult, having spent 11 years in the Navy and 25 years post-Navy, I have lived in several places. There is nothing like Central Texas. Bell County is always close to my heart!”
— Tony Adams, Temple College Athletics & Belton ISD athletics play-by-play live-streamer