Acting as the Ogden Redevelopment Agency, or RDA, the board voted 5-2 Tuesday evening on a resolution “approving and authorizing the Executive Director to execute an offer to purchase real property and acceptance with the United States of America for the purchase of the U.S. Forest Service Building located at 507 25th Street.” Council members Bart Blair and Richard Hyer both voted against the resolution.

Resolutions to reimburse the RDA for expenditures incurred and a budget amendment “appropriating funds in the amount of $600,000 for earnest money and maintenance costs associated with the purchase of the Forest Service Building” both passed unanimously.

Sara Meess, Ogden economic development director, said the city has been pursuing the building, which the federal General Services Administration is putting up for sale at $3.6 million.

“We really want to make sure that the building is preserved,” she said. “We also want to make sure that it contributes to the goals that we have for the Nine Rails Creative District as well as the Adams CRA (Community Reinvestment Area), and that the reuse of this building is something that’s going to benefit the immediate neighborhood as well as the broader community.”

The structure, an example of art deco construction, was completed in 1934 and housed offices for the U.S. Forest Service until a couple of years ago. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. The building has around 53,000 square feet of space over four levels and a full basement.

“The building has been very well maintained over the years, but it will require a significant renovation,” Meess said.

She said this is a chance to help the Nine Rails Creative District — an area bounded by Grant and Madison avenues to the west and east and 24th and 26th streets to the north and south — in achieving its goals.

“This building is a really unique opportunity for us to preserve a historic asset of this community and also contribute to the continued development and success of the Nine Rails Creative District,” she said. “It represents an opportunity to catalyze further arts activity in Nine Rails, ranging from commercial to residential use that will support artists and other creatives.”

Recommendations include:

• Making the structure a mixed-use space that offers affordable housing and workspace “targeted to creative and entrepreneurial residents.”
• Providing “collaborative studio space” on the building’s main level as well as room for artists or performances in the basement.
• Approximately 40-50 residential housing units for families making 65% of the area median income.
• Use of a perpetual housing fund to help build wealth for residents.
• Parking in a nearby lot and art pieces adjacent to the building.

Council member Angela Choberka said this was an exciting project for the city to move forward with, especially the perpetual housing fund element.

“We’ve been asking, for a long time, for people to create a way that people can build equity in an apartment or a condo or something like that,” she said. “Having the possibility of the perpetual housing fund is a win, in my mind, because I want to see how it works. I want to have it play out so we can see how people might be able to build equity in this sort of space.”

Blair said his opposition to moving forward with the stemmed from a question of whether the action was necessary.

“I said, early on, this feels like a want rather than a need and I just never really got over that,” he said. “It feels like the financing is pretty tight and, in the past, when we’ve had projects where the financing is tight, it puts us in a hard spot. It never goes according to plan.”

Hyer said there were some issues he feels need to be addressed.

“Our initial appraisal was a million bucks less than the GSA’s, and it sounded more realistic to me what that building is worth to me as it doesn’t have any parking, it has potentially got some seismic issues that’s going to have to be dealt with — which is going to be a pretty nebulous number,” he said. “The GSA is also going to put that conservation easement on this when it transfers. We also have rules in our code that deal with historic buildings, which this is — it’s on the registry — and I’m not sure we’re getting a lot more by buying it than we already had in our ordinance.”

Despite the pair’s opposition to the purchase resolution, both Hyer and Blair voted for the resolutions dealing with funding.

However, Mayor Ben Nadolski said he favored the purchase for a simple reason.

“For me, it was the historic element and nature of the building that I just couldn’t put at risk,” he said. “I feel like this is too important to our community and to our history and our future to put out to risk.”

Further action related to the purchase will be considered at later dates.