WATERLOO - New businesses and a growing focus on spring and summertime festivals in Waterloo's downtown are helping make the city's center the place to go for arts and entertainment.

"When you create visibility in your downtown by having events (there), it sparks an interest and a belief that your downtown is alive with people," said Terry Poe Buschkamp, executive director of Main Street Waterloo, referring to fetes like Friday'loo and My Waterloo Days. "People come to have fun, and they end up staying or they come back."

In the past few years a handful of new businesses have expanded nightlife options for Cedar Valley residents. Jameson's Public House, 310 E. Fourth St., opened in February 2006 and offers live music four nights a week. Just down the block, at 320 E. Fourth St., the Cu Restaurant and the Cellar Bar pull in customers with their fine cuisine and local music. And visitors from across the globe have flocked to the year-old Galleria de Paco, 622 Commercial St., to dine beneath the artist's 2,511-square-foot re-creation of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel.

"Success follows success," said Buschkamp.

"Those developers who took the risk and went out on a limb when things were not as exciting are now being followed by others, and there are two new nightlife spots that will hopefully be opening in the near future," said Buschkamp, who declined to comment further about the new businesses.

In October, Waterloo's downtown area was reviewed by the National Trust Main Street Center. Representatives who visited the area were impressed by the number of artists living and working in the city's urban area.

"The consultants in our community said everyone else tries to be an artists' community, but you are really doing it," Buschkamp said. "Artists follow artists, and we've had some success with some major artists not only working in our community, but living in our community."

Paco Rosic, spray-paint artist and owner of Galleria de Paco, keeps a studio above his restaurant. New Orleans painter Richard Thomas, who came to Iowa in 2005 following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, created a unity-themed mural last summer on a Layfayette Street Skywalk between Fourth Street and Park Avenue.

Thomas purchased the building at 217 W. Fifth St. and hopes to use the space as a home and art and music studio. The lower level also will house a restaurant called "Oh Taste and See" that will serve New Orleans-style cooking.

"We hope to give the people of Iowa and hopefully the Midwest a chance to experience authentic Louisiana cooking," he said. "We think we can do it through the music and the food, as well as the art."

Although the artist wishes the city would offer more assistance to downtown developers, he has high hopes for Waterloo's arts and entertainment district.

"When I meet people who have seen the mural, they say they appreciate having me here," Thomas said. "I realize there's a lot to invest in."

In the past five or six years, more hospitality businesses have set up shop downtown, making it "more of a destination spot," said Buck Clark, Jameson's owner.

"I think that's happening, and we expect it to keep going," he said. "I really believe that a lot of the success of the entire city is tied to the success of the city's downtown, and entertainment is vital to that goal."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482 or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com.