As downtown Middletown transforms into an arts and education hub, more businesses are committing to the marquee intersection of Central Avenue and Broad Street.

When it opens Dec. 1, Sugar Hi Cafe will join two other eateries who are becoming a big part of the city’s downtown revitalization efforts. The Mockingbird Cafe in the Pendleton Art Center will have its grand opening later this month, and Stained 1054 Bistro at BeauVerre is set to open in November.

“Is it going to be competition? Absolutely not,” said Patrick Kay, Downtown Middletown Inc. executive director. “The more restaurants, the better.”

By spring, downtown Middletown “will be a completely different happening place downtown,” he said.

There will be four to five new restaurants downtown and there’s early discussion about having a microbrewery downtown, according to Kay.

“The service industry and restaurants drive the economy of a downtown,” he said. “Without those service industries, it’s hard to bring in the retail because the service industry and restaurants are destinations.

“I think by the spring of next year, you’re going to see a whole new downtown,” Kay said.

The opening of Cincinnati State Middletown “sealed the deal” for Sugar Hi Cafe owner Jeri Nicole to decide to open a business downtown.

The single mom of three boys said she fully understands it’s difficult to keep a small business open, but she is biding by a cardinal rule of business: location, location, location.

Her location is just a city block away from where hundreds of students take classes at Butler County’s first community college. The students and staff will need a coffee shop with Wi-Fi and a conference room, she said.

Nicole’s shop will also be in the middle of downtown events like the monthly First Friday series and Broad Street Bash, the annual summer concert series.

“To know I can be a part of something bigger than myself is humbling,” she said.

While Downtown Middletown Inc. provides support to downtown businesses like Nicole’s, they also receive support from the city.

“One of the city’s biggest concerns is making sure new small business owners understand the pitfalls and what hurdles they’re going to have to overcome,” said Matt Eisenbraun, Middletown Economic Development program manager. “Getting free assistance helps immensely.”

The more similar businesses there are in an area, and the more times they can work together via cross promotion or collaboration the better it will be fore the downtown, Eisenbraun said.

“It becomes more of a team mentality,” he said. “We can certainly use additional places for tourists to come in.”

The city has struggled in recent years, but economic development behind BeauVerre at the Square, Pendleton Art Center and Cincinnati State has prompted businesses, like the soon-to-open Sugar Hi Cafe, to open.

The groundwork, Kay said, started with Jay and Linda Moorman when a decade earlier they opened BeauVerre Riordan.

“If it wasn’t for Jay and Linda Moorman and what they have done for the downtown, we would not be where we are today in terms of success of downtown Middletown,” he said.

Sugar Hi Cafe will open at 1100 Central Ave., the building that used to be a creole restaurant and pharmacy in previous lives. It will serve coffee, breakfast, lunch, smoothies and desserts.

Nicole sees her cafe as “warm and friendly,” where the barista will know what the regulars will order as soon as they walk in the door. But that atmosphere will be extended to the other downtown businesses. She plans to cross promote — even with the naturally competing businesses — by creating custom desserts on the menu named for them.

“You want to show business support,” she said. “I feel for the first time in my 34 years I have roots,” said the self-described “Army brat.”

Eventually she wants to teach pastry classes — possibly collaborating with Cincinnati State’s culinary school — and create art with her food, which will be upscale but affordable cafe fare.

“It’s going to look like art when it comes out to the table,” she said.