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Fenton: Building gets financial boost
The 1926 Fen-
ton Building
will receive
urban renewal
funding.
Continued from Page 1
an attitude of gratitude.”
tually, production will be
The city’s urban renewal
moved to the building too.
agency hopes a financial con-
The
10,200-square-foot tribution will help make the
mixed-use
commercial project viable.
structure has six apartments
“This is an incredible build-
upstairs
and
one
ing downtown,” said
downstairs but most
Kevin Cronin, the
of the ground floor
city’s community de-
will go toward the
velopment director.
public house.
“It’s really a stimulus
“There isn’t a place
package for the down-
like it in Warrenton,”
town. God knows we
said Elliott, a former
need something for
bartender at Bubba’s Engbretson our downtown,” City
Bar & Grill. “There is a
Manager Linda Eng-
lot of work that needs to be bretson added.
done to that building – be-
Maize and Roberts asked
ing a 100-year-old building. the agency Tuesday to con-
…
sider kicking in more funds
The city has been really to help; they’d already been
helpful. We definitely have approved for a $10,000
June 26, 2020
T he C olumbia P ress
Below: Fran-
ces and Doc
Wilson, who
ran the phar-
macy at the
corner.
façade grant.
City commissioners, in
their role as the urban re-
newal agency, agreed unan-
imously to provide up to
$35,000 in total financial as-
sistance; the owners would
be required to match every
dollar spent.
The urban renewal agency
was set up to revitalize the
downtown, using tax money
collected within the urban
renewal district.
The building’s exterior will
get an “extreme makeover by
enhancing historic aspects
and removing nonhistoric
elements,” Cronin said.
The city’s investment will
provide a major boost down-
town, Cronin said. Hopeful-
ly, it encourages more prop-
erty owners to participate in
the façade grant program.
The Fenton Grocery Build-
ing at 60 S. Main Ave. was
built by logging company
owner Jake Bosshart.
Maize’s
grandfather
worked at Fenton Grocery
before
opening
Maize’s
Red and White Store at the
current site of Main Street
Market. Fenton’s closed in
1956 and, during the ‘60s,
the building was home to a
Coast-to-Coast
Hardware
store.
The building has much de-
ferred maintenance and the
roof, heating and plumbing
systems must be upgraded.
City Commission Mark
Baldwin, a contractor, raised
some concerns about how
siding was installed last year.
“I don’t want us to throw
good money at bad, I guess,”
Baldwin said. “It concerns
me… is this being managed
correctly?”
The city’s building official
did not re-
quire a build-
ing permit to
replace
the
siding, Cronin
told him.
Because of
the required
Baldwin
dollar match,
“Our exposure
is really limited here,” Cro-
nin said. “But the upside is
really good. It really comes
down to: how do we want to
spend our money to improve
the economic development
in the downtown?”
The city manager assured
commissioners the building
official will stay on top of the
project, as a condition of the
façade grants is to get ap-
proval for the materials and
work that will be done.