Good for Tom Christeson for sticking with his plan to build a small boutique hotel on Liberty Street.

Some would have walked away by now.

But one has to wonder how future development efforts are going to play out given how hard Christeson is having to work to make the Wendleboe Hotel a reality. The project uses a portion of the former Masonic building on Liberty Street which will also include two or three apartments, and the developer told City Council members recently the project will now have six more rooms to make the cash flow on the project make financial sense.

The boutique hotel project is also still working on project financing through the Small Business Administration and a local bank, though commitment letters haven’t come yet. And Christeson was honest with the council when he said “money is still a bit of an issue.”

This project would be a nice addition to downtown, but the amount of work Christeson has had to put in to tweak the hotel should be taken as a sign that we have to find a way to bring more people into downtown Warren.

If we don’t, then Christeson will have put a lot of time, effort and money into a project that the community may struggle to support.

Christeson is making a big bet on Liberty Street. In addition to the hotel, he’s working to bring two new restaurants in the former Brick House building and the former Jack’s Tap House.

If you build it, will they come? We sure hope so.