Developers and Grand Junction city officials are looking inward for economic opportunities downtown.
Organizations like the Downtown Development Authority see the vacant buildings and empty lots that pepper the area as necessities to creating a vibrant downtown and are focusing efforts on that.
“Right now, these areas are vacant and they’re not contributing anything positive economically or socially,” said Brandon Stam, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority. “Look at the old City Market. That’s one of your entrances to downtown and it’s just an empty building. That attracts unwanted activity like vandalism. It doesn’t benefit anyone.”
In 2015, the DDA published a study that argued that improving housing options downtown would make it more vibrant and benefit the economy as a whole.
It identified four sites of interest for future development: The spot of the old White Hall, 615 White Ave., the parking lot at the corner of Colorado Avenue and Fifth Street, the open space next to the Rood Avenue parking garage, and the parking lot near the Bank of Colorado.
The DDA and other entities believe these spaces, and other vacated properties, are in prime locations being close to the central business district and can meet the needs for more housing or commercial spaces.
Take the old Rite Aid building, 440 N. First St., for example. It sits on a two-acre parcel of more than 83,000 square feet at the east entrance to downtown and, like the nearby City Market, is a sight for sore eyes. Because of the size of the parcel, it’s likely an opportunity for commercial redevelopment, Stam said. If tenants could be found, that would bring obvious economic benefits.
“Infill also saves on a lot of other costs. For example, you don’t need new service areas for police and the fire department,” Stam said. “(There’s also) potential reuse opportunities that allow buildings to continue to have value and can help preserve architectural uniqueness of older buildings.”
The old Rite Aid is currently listed for sale at an undisclosed amount by Ryan Tomkins of SRS National Net Lease Group. The old City Market, meanwhile, is now under contract with an unidentified buyer.
While empty buildings are seen as blight to many, Visit Grand Junction sees more value in them.
Elizabeth Fogarty, director of VGJ, said they hope that some who come to the Grand Valley to hike Grand Mesa or bike Colorado National Monument will be intrigued by the empty properties.
“They’ll see the open spots as opportunities for retail. That’s how we frame this situation,” she said. “We’d support any use for those old buildings but we’re big proponents of commercial use like retail and restaurants.”
HOME IS WHERE THE MONEY IS
But you don’t need to rely on commercial infill development to spur economic development.
Residential spaces can knock that and another bird out with one stone.
“There’s a lot of benefits to residential development. For one, we clearly need more housing. We’re not meeting the demand,” Stam said. “When you have residential space, that creates side economic benefits. More people are downtown and spending money, stores can be open later, and it also can make it a safer environment. There have also been companies who have had trouble recruiting employees here because they can’t find a place to live.”
The old White Hall site has caught the eye of Jamis Companies, a real estate business from Denver. Jamis pitched Ivity Lofts to the DDA in March, a 52-unit apartment complex. The Eddy, a 96-unit multi family housing complex and upscale camping site is planned in east Las Colonias where Brady Trucking once was. At its June 10 board meeting, the DDA agreed to reimburse developer Four Points Funding $500,000 for the project.
That and other developments are still months, if not years, from being finished, but Stam and others believe that it will pay off in the end.
“Another benefit of downtown housing is that it’s also going to attract more business opportunities. Like right now, we don’t have a grocery store because there isn’t a need for one, but that’s going to change with more people living here,” Stam said. “And we can even go with mixed-use properties with retail space on the ground floor and residential above. There’s a lot of possibilities.