It has now been about a month since one of Avenida Revolucion's most iconic buildings was torn down to make way for what is expected to be another bar — likely another one dollar shooter bar aimed at a market of consumers who visit Tijuana's downtown only during the weekends late at night, and who are looking for places that offer the best ratio of the most alcohol for the least amount of money.

The loss of the Mexicoach building, which housed an equally iconic as-of-late concept called the HUB STN, was a blow to a process that had aimed to turn Tijuana's downtown area into more than just a place to get drunk in, but rather a place to work in, network with like-minded creators — essentially, a community instead of a just a street.

Hub STN was part of a vision that aimed to regenerate the entire downtown area — an area that became shuttered and rundown after wide-brimmed sombrero buying Americans stopped crossing the border post-9/11. This "renovation" is a story that has been told hundreds of times here and abroad over the past couple of years: a group of young social entrepreneurs realized that old curios stalls and shooter bars could instead house art galleries and book stores, such as those now housed in the old underground Pasaje Rodriguez and on the main drag; gourmet food courts such as Colectivo 9 and Telefonica Gastro Park; or Baja-Med restaurants such as La Justina. Even traditional tourist attractions like the home of the Caesar salad and the famous Zonkey photo stalls regained prominence — the latter obtaining the designation as cultural heritage of Tijuana along with the newly coined Baja-Med Cuisine.

While the old-guard of cheap beer and hooker bars time and time again attempts to regain control of the downtown strip, it is apparent that they are now piggy-backing off a movement that was born precisely out of a desire to diversify from that economy. What's worse is that instead of grasping on to the few remnants of history that this city has and trying to build a concept around it, we will now have yet another bar, and one less iconic building.

When beer is flowing and a profit is to be had with two-dollar beer, there is little incentive for the oft-labeled dinosaurs of Tijuana and its government to bear down and invest in new sectors such as startups, tech, and other high value-added services.

If we were to twist the old saying of "build it and they will come", for the Tijuana of late the saying would be "rethink it, revive it, restore it and they will come". The downtown revitalization has spread in all directions and increased its reach to some of the oldest engrained environments, most starkly exemplified by the founding of an architecture school by a group of Tijuana's most prominent architects in Tijuana's red lamp district known as "la Zona Norte" or "la Coahuila".

While the demolition of the Hub STN isn't a deal breaker for the revitalization of Tijuana's "zona centro", it certainly was a blow to a sector that had aimed to build and foster a Tech and startup community in the city that has long been an extremely successful "Maquiladora" host, but has not taken advantage of its highly educated, highly skilled, bilingual engineers and professionals to target the value-added tech sector.

Why should we care about the tech sector? Most advanced economies are all aiming toward the tech sector for economic renewal as a way to reactivate job growth and stagnant incomes. With robotics, drone technology, nano-tech, and digital technology advancing leaps and bounds, economies are embracing the tech sector as a way to continue to ensure sustainable growth.

According to the Brookings Institute, advanced industries such as engineering, architecture, technical consulting, information services, and research and development cluster in large metropolitan areas. Tijuana is a large metropolitan area that can pull from a nearly endless pool of qualified workers, so the tech sector is a perfect match. These industries also provide high-quality economic opportunities for workers, with workers earning on average twice that of the general industry.

San Diego is one of the metropolitan areas in the US which has seen the largest percentage of employment in advanced industries, so it seems only logical that Tijuana should be leveraging its geographical proximity and latch on to this too.

Miguel Marshall, one of the co-founders of Hub STN, has taken up house in a section of the architecture school, the Escuela Libre de Arquitectura, where they are going back to the drawing board to work on their next venture, aptly named CentroVentures, with the hope of ensuring that the goal of fostering urban development and business acceleration in emerging communities can continue. They have realized that in order for this to be sustainable, Tijuana's downtown must be livable as well— it needs to be a place where entrepreneurs can not only open up shop but also walk home after work.

In less than two months, CentroVentures has closed its first round of investment with a group of real estate angel investors experienced in urban development in Tijuana. The group is doubling down instead of backing down, and aims to aggressively accelerate and promote integrative businesses that not only generate economic impact in the city, but social impact as well via private sector ventures.

@borderzonie