The Abilene City Council cut off its nose to spite its face and couldn't see the forest for the trees. Sure, he could have done it on his own, and he knew you were planning on using his name. But he was willing to do that for the betterment of the downtown area.
Downtown certainly needs a unique idea to cause people to come to it.
You do need more variety downtown. There are lots of western people who would have gone downtown for western ideas. Consider what the Big Country people might want, not just a small group of city people. We once knew a town whose city fathers fought progress. Now that town is dying because of it.