The WonderBlock has come a long way since its January 2024 groundbreaking.

David Sawyer, deputy director for community and economic development for Ogden City, said some of it is even about ready to open to the public.

“The parking structure — the most developed piece at this point in the middle — that’s pretty much done,” he said. “The court parking, which is out on Grant right now, will be moved into that facility about the end of the month. Then the public will be able to start using the garage in December-ish.”

The WonderBlock development plans call for 356 residential units, 113,000 square feet of class A office space, 49,252 square feet of retail space, including plans for a grocery store, a 92-room boutique hotel and two parking structures with 1,100 parking stalls.

Image supplied, Ogden City

Sawyer said that residential units will largely wrap around the parking structure.

“You won’t see the big expanse of concrete from the street once the project’s done,” he said. “Last year, people were calling my office and saying, ‘Why? That’s the ugliest apartment building I’ve ever seen.'”

Among the goals for the WonderBlock is to attract a grocery store.

Sawyer said that the city is currently in talks with multiple entities about making this a reality once the space is ready.

“We’re in discussions with two or three different grocery store chains, if you will,” he said. “This will be a little different model of store — it’s a downtown grocery store, so the square footage is not going to be like the Smith’s on Harrison or something like that.”

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

He said it’s the element that residents in that area are looking forward to most.

“It’s probably the thing that Ogden residents and people who work downtown are the most excited about,” he said. “You would think it would be some of the cooler aspects of WonderBlock, but they’re excited about the grocery store. That will be positioned on the main floor right at the corner of Lincoln and 26th Street. … We do have a little bit of a food desert right in the downtown area, so the demographics are playing really well with the markets we’re talking to.”

While a contract has yet to be signed for an entity to fill that space, Sawyer confirmed that the boutique hotel has been spoken for.

“That is done and the announcement will be forthcoming on that; the developer told me about a week ago,” he said. “It’s one of the large brand-name hotel companies with one of their boutique brands.”

He was unable to announce which hotel brand will be moving in at this time.

As for the office space, Sawyer said that while trends have seen a move away from traditional office space elsewhere, it’s needed in the Ogden area.

“There hasn’t been a Class A office space built in the Ogden area for 30 years,” he said. “We, in our interactions with brokers and individuals, look particularly at defense-related companies that are currently in the Ogden area or want to be. That’s one of the things they’re looking for. We also feel very confident about the ability to fill that space as well and we’ve got some good interactions and ongoing negotiations regarding that as well. In some cases, they want all of it; in some cases there’s multiple floors they want to take.”

Sawyer said the full project is anticipated to be finished either in late 2027 or early 2028.

“It’s on schedule moving along quite well,” he said.