Downtown redevelopment has been a project for a while, and the Lubbock City Council will look at approving more money for another portion of the project.

Thursday, the city council will vote on a contract to move more of the overhead utilities underground.

The utility project started a few years ago, and this next part is phase three, which assistant city manager Neil Welch said would focus on Avenue J between Mac Davis Lane and 19th Street.

Welch said the estimate is for 18 months to complete, but there are two more phases. 

“I think realistically within a 5 year time frame, you’ll see a lot of new things happen,” Delbert McDougal said. “You’ll start to see some things happen a little sooner than that.”

McDougal is the master developer for the downtown redevelopment project. 

He said there is already a lot of interest in downtown Lubbock, some of which is being pulled because of different employers in that area.

“It’s natural that downtown becomes vibrant once again, and that will happen,” McDougal said.