Down-BOOM-town: Population of downtown district has doubled – will businesses follow?

Judy Sledge was the first person to move in at the Surety Apartments when they opened in 2006. She said she and her neighbors have been test subjects of sorts.

“This building was a guinea pig,” Sledge said of the historic Surety Building on the corner of Third Street and Broadway. “If people build, people will come.”

Muskogee’s downtown population has doubled since the apartments opened, said city of Muskogee Planning Director Gary Garvin. In 2009, 16 apartments were built at the Doyal Bland building, at North Third and Court streets. And the Manhattan Building on Fourth Street and Broadway is set to open this month with 42 apartments. That should further boost the downtown population, which sits between 300 and 500, Garvin said.

While the downtown population represents less than 2 percent of Muskogee’s overall population, close to 10 percent — about 3,500 — live or work downtown, said Jonita Mullins, executive director of Downtown Muskogee Inc.