On Tuesday, a contract demolition crew began to raze the vacant Army/Navy surplus store and adjacent muffler shop on Tuesday as the final preparatory step prior to the beginning of Logan’s Main Street revitalization effort.
LOGAN – The final domino in the downtown revitalization game here has finally fallen.
A contract demolition crew began to level the vacant Army/Navy surplus store and adjacent muffler shop in the 300 block of Main Street on Tuesday morning.
Removal of those dilapidated city-owned structures is the final step in a three-part Main Street clearance project that began in January with the demolition of the Emporium Building and followed with the end of the former Logan Library.
Although nostalgia prompted some public out-cry over the loss of the library and Emporium buildings, Logan Mayor Holly Daines suspects that no one will shed tears over these structures, which she describes as having been “an eyesore” for years.
Once these last doomed structures are gone, Daines says the property on which they stood will play a dual role in the city’s revitalization plans.
First the property will serve as a staging area for material and equipment that will be used to construct a new library building across 300 North Street.
Once that project is completed, Logan officials will move ahead with hopes for a mixed-use commercial development on those lots, combined with property already owned by the city on the northeast corner of 300 North and Main streets.
Acting in their capacity as the Logan Redevelopment Agency (RDA), the members of the Logan City Council approved the purchase of these blighted properties in September of 2020.
That acquisition involved securing slightly more than an acre of land from the Needham Family Partnership for $1.25 million, according to City Economic Development Director Kirk Jensen.
Because Logan already held that corner property at 300 North and Main streets, the purchase gave the city ownership of about a quarter of the block bordered by Main St. on the east, 400 North on the north, 100 West on the west and 300 North on the south.
Although the RDA decision drew criticism from some members of the public, Jensen defended the purchase by replying that the blighted property would be the northern anchor of a proposed series of redevelopment projects stretching from 100 South Street to nearly 400 North Street in order to widen the scope of Logan’s downtown revitalization effort.
Those proposed projects include the now-completed Mill Creek multi-family residential housing development on 100 South Street, the city plaza replacing the Emporium and the new library to be constructed in the 300 block of Main Street.