Mayor Holly Daines has confirmed that the Logan Library and the now=vacant Emporium are due to be demolished in the next 60 days.

LOGAN – The landscape of downtown Logan is scheduled to change drastically in the next 60 days.

At the Logan City Council’s first meeting of the New Year on Tuesday, Mayor Holly Daines confirmed that demolition of the now-vacant Emporium building on Main Street will begin during January.

Just blocks away, she added, the demolition of the Logan Library is set for February to make way for a new library facility.

The demolition of the Emporium is the first step in Daines’ ambitious plan for the revitalization of downtown Logan. The removal of that structure will make room for the construction of a community plaza later in the spring. That project will provide a gathering place and an entertainment venue for local residents and visitors.

The mayor has previously explained that city officials have been working on construction drawings of the Center Block Plaza with architects since April of 2021.

The demolition contract for the Emporium was awarded to Spindler Construction on Dec. 3.

Since the Center Block Plaza project was approved in spring of 2021, Logan’s redevelopment agency has invested more than $4.3 million in the plaza project, including about $1.3 million for the demolition of the now-vacant Emporium building and adjacent structures to the north; about $2.1 million for construction of the public plaza; around $400,000 for the portable ice rink; and about $440,000 for construction of an outdoor stage and an administration building.

City officials also requested another redevelopment grant in the amount of nearly $1.6 million for the remodeling of structures adjacent to the plaza to the south at 41 and 45 North Main Street.

At the same time, city officials launched a private fundraising campaign to defray some of those RDA investments in the plaza project. As of mid-December of last year, Daines said gifts and pledges to the fundraising effort totaled $2,150,000.

This artist’s rendering is an aerial view of the Center Block Plaza that Logan city officials plan to construct in the footprint of the vacant Emporium Building, which is now slated for demolition.

Recent contributions to the plaza fund included $100,000 from Apogee Instruments; $100,000 from Ellyn “Kookie” Tanner; $50,000 from the Measom Family Foundation; and $150,000 from the Cache Valley Visitors Bureau.

Previous contributions to Daines’ fundraising effort have included $1 million from the Jim and Carol Laub Family Foundation and Cache Valley Electric; a $200,000 donation from the Emma Eccles Jones Foundation; a $250,000 challenge grant pledge from the George S. and Delores Doré Eccles Foundation; a $103,000 donation from Peter and Holly Daines; and a $197,000 gift from Cache County.

Construction of the Center Block Plaza is expected to begin in spring.

The demolition and replacement of the Logan Library will involve a more complicated process, according to city officials.

That plan calls for construction of a three-story library structure oriented primarily along Main Street, stretching south from the corner of 300 North Street.

That plan requires moving the library’s stock and functions to a temporary location during the demolition and construction process, according to associate librarian Morgan Stoker-Taylor.

“The temporary location of the Logan Library will be at the Logan City Service Center at 950 West, 600 North,” Stoker-Taylor explained.

In January, the library’s materials will be moved to the Logan City Service Center and a public surplus sale of excess furniture and other items will be held.

The temporary library location will open during February of 2022 and demolition of the old library structure will begin.

Construction of the new library is expected to begin in March of 2022, with the new facility expected to open in the spring or summer of 2023.

City officials have previously estimated the construction cost of the new library at $16 million through analysis of expenses associated with two recently constructed libraries in the Utah communities of Kerns and Daybreak.



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