Despite the economic recession, downtown Ithaca continues to expand. The corridor between Green Street and Cayuga Street is fast becoming a trendy consumer complex, with a new Gimme! Coffee, pharmacy and TCAT bus stop sprouting up alongside the recently opened Urban Outfitters.

The point of the development, according to city officials, is to make the area a destination spot in the same vein of the Commons.

“I think we’re creating a fun city,” said Alderperson Svante Myrick ’09 (D-4th ward). “Green Street now is a major improvement on Green Street four years ago. We want to make [the area] a destination and extension of the Commons.”

Many students were excited last week when the City of Ithaca Planning and Development Board approved plans for an Urban Outfitters store set to hit downtown Ithaca this summer. The store is part of a larger plan meant to bring more people to downtown Ithaca. Hopefully, however, the trip to a new chain store will not mark students’ first visits downtown. As residents of Ithaca, Cornellians have the responsibility to be active in the community around them, rather than merely shop in it.

Downtown Ithaca may get a wardrobe change after building plans for an Urban Outfitters on Green Street gained preliminary approval from the City of Ithaca Planning and Development Board on Tuesday. Set to open by mid-summer, the store will add variety to students’ local shopping options.

Urban Outfitters will occupy the majority of the ground floor beneath Cayuga Green, a new mixed-use apartment building on Green Street. The overall Cayuga Green project includes a small cinema being built across the street.

David Levy, the architect who represented Urban Outfitters Inc. to the planning board, revealed plans to break ground by late March or early April. Next month the board will vote on the final approval of the renovations necessary for the project.