Cassidy’s Irish Pub reveals full makeover with historic charm preserved<\/a><\/p>\nThe spot, known for its rooftop venue, is adding a quieter, renovated indoor lounge for people who want to hang out away from the noise.<\/p>\n
The makeover is thanks to funding from the Downtown TIRZ.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s just no way I just didn\u2019t have enough funds,\u201d said Retro Arcade owner Freddy Rodriguez, talking about how the TIRZ 3 fund allowed him to start his business two years ago.<\/p>\n
Now, he says having that financial head start is allowing him to transform part of Retro into a lounge room.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelped me get to that point where I could actually do this project,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a transformation he hopes can bring a blast from the past back to downtown Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenovations are going to do a lot of good for downtown. Back in the day this building was a nightclub called Aria. So now I\u2019m bringing back a little bit of that vibe, only upstairs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But in order to win the game, you have to know how to play. Rodriguez says TIRZ has the hidden move for success.<\/p>\n
\u201cEver since we renovated it we noticed other existing establishments that have been going through renovations using TIRZ money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tracey Guajardo, who owns Allure Cosmetics and is preparing to launch Thirsty\u2019s Bar downtown, said applying for TIRZ funding was easy \u2014 but it does take a strong business plan to get approved.<\/p>\n
She already has experience as a shop owner and says the downtown location can\u2019t be beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has brought my business of many years to a whole new level. Especially being downtown by Ocean Drive, you become more of not just a business but a neighbor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Corpus Christi At-Large Councilman Roland Barrera says the bottom line of a TIRZ is to spur economic growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be able to create more taxable value. That should be the delta. Is this going to create more taxable value with the property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The spot, known for its rooftop venue, is adding a quieter, renovated indoor lounge for people who want…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-73932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}