Vision for Vacancies: 11 Ives St., and 1 Ives St.

The Mad Hatter, formerly Maxwell's, on the CityCenter green, is gone, so what should the first-floor space at 1 Ives St. become?

Two doors away is 11 Ives St., formerly Horizons and before that it was Alligator Alley and Boppers. Between Maxwell's and Horizons is Two Steps Downtown Grille, which is alive and well. This is Danbury's Dining and Entertainment District, but the weight of dining and entertaining in the city shifted to Mill Plain Road.

Let's call this a social media twist on urban planning — Patch's version of a charette, a digital drawing board where all ideas are on the table. We're faced with an Ives Street that is short of dining and it's short of entertainment.

In this series we've presented a new vacant building or space and asked you to tell us its best use. Forget what zone it's in, ignore setback regulations, dump lot coverage rules and all the other zoning jargon that puts most people to sleep. If you had your way, what would you like to see there? What would be the best use for the community?

For background, 1 Ives St. was called for years the former Omaha Beef building. It was since gutted, renovated and reborn as a combination office building with dining on the first floor. It was Maxwell's, but that closed and was burglarized in the same week. It then became the Mad Hatter, which closed.

Two doors down is 11 Ives St., formerly Horizons and before that Alligator Alley and before that Bopper's.

What should happen here?