OGDEN — Thaine Fischer, managing partner at Fischer Regan Enterprises, has spent nearly two decades rehabbing many of Ogden’s historical buildings.

Among them is The Monarch.

Standing as the proud anchor of the Nine Rails Creative District since it opened in 2019, the event center also provides creative space for artists and retail space.

But Fischer said well before it was serving area artists and their needs, the building was opened in 1929 to serve the needs of tourists who were utilizing the automobile in ever-increasing numbers.

“It was built in conjunction with the Bigelow Hotel  by Andy Bigelow,” Fischer said. “If you can imagine what roads and cars were back in the late-’20s and early-’30s, when guests would come to the hotel, they would pull their car into the garage next door and they would get them serviced and get them back out on the road.”

He said after a few decades, the evolving needs of tourists changed and the property eventually was bought.

“In the ’70s, it was bought by a gentleman here that turned it into a restaurant-night club,” he said. “I’ve heard stories of several from Señor Frog’s to some BBQ place out of Jackson Hole came here, opened for like three months, got food poisoning and it shut back down.”

Fischer said the building was not in the best state when they took it over.

“When we bought it, it was in real disarray,” he said. “Part of the roof had caved in. There were still tenants in it, believe it or not, but there were several parts of the building you couldn’t occupy.”

He said they soon went about cleaning up the property, doing demolition where appropriate while keeping the essence of the structure.

“At the end, we keep the brick, the roof, the openings and the natural light,” he said. “The Monarch had so much natural light that was phenomenal and we felt like this space could have an adaptive reuse that would be successful.”

Fischer said early on he singled out 10,000 square-feet of what had essentially been a parking garage would become event space. He’d also contemplated bringing the city’s Farmer’s Market under the roof of the newly renovated space before exploring the art world.

“The more I was talking to people about my ideas and researching, a concept came up that was an arts idea,” he said. We bought into events space because we felt like the event space would bring about 2,000-3,000 people per month through the building, and then that will bring awareness to the rest of the tenants in the building. It’s no different than how the movie theater brings traffic to The Junction — all of those smaller businesses benefit from that.”

He said that his research had shown something about the success of art districts such as Nine Rails.

“We started looking at arts districts and how arts basically go into the worst parts of the communities and do really, really well,” he said. “We did a lot of research and we never found an arts district in America that failed. Ever.”

However, Fischer said there is one element of this they’re keeping an eye on.

“What happens is they become so successful that, usually, the people who founded them can’t afford to be there after a decade or two,” he said. “We’re trying to keep a little bit of a rearview mirror on that.”

He said having a place for the arts like The Monarch is important to a city like Ogden and its shared culture.

“If you’re a writer, if you’re an architect, if you make pottery — I see people do things in these spaces or in buildings that become super, super important to the community,” he said. “They’re a draw. Arts connects communities.”

For more on the Monarch, visit https://www.themonarchogden.com/.