An apartment building is rising in the Capitol Square block in central Ogden as the first redevelopment effort in the wide-open space gains speed.
The Capitol Square initiative is meant to revitalize the block bounded by 24th and 25th streets to the north and south and Quincy Avenue and Monroe Boulevard to the east and west, where the Rite-Aid building once stood. Over the long haul, leaders in the city, which owns much of the land in the block, envision townhomes, brownstones, condominiums and even a grocery store, according to planning documents.
“The master plan looks to add a variety of housing including LIHTC apartments, market-rate apartments and for-sale, single-family housing. It also considers a grocer and other commercial spaces as part of the overall development,” said Brandon Cooper, head of the Ogden Community and Economic Development Department. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program, or LIHTC — operated in the state through the Utah Housing Corp. — creates incentives for developers to encourage construction of housing for low-income tenants.
First to take shape is the five-story, 178-unit apartment building on a 2-acre section off the northwest corner 25th Street and Quincy Avenue, spearheaded by J. Fisher Cos., a Centerville-based developer involved in several Ogden development projects. Work started in mid-August and it’s to take 18 months, according to Cooper, making for a preliminary completion date of around February 2025.
The apartment structure — with parking on part of the ground level — is also to contain around 5,400 square feet of commercial space fronting 25th Street. The apartment units, Cooper said, would be restricted to renters earning 60% of the area median income or less.
Cooper said the other elements of the Capitol Square development are still in the works and he didn’t offer a timeline for when they may materialize. Whether the proposed grocery store would be in a stand-alone structure or incorporated into a mixed-use building has yet to be determined.
A laundromat that once operated at the Capitol Square site in the 800 block of 25th Street caused ground contamination in the zone that has required underground cleanup efforts. That work, in conjunction with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, continues.
“To date, the source contaminate has been removed and abated. Further mitigation will happen moving north on the site,” Cooper said. The environmental issues, he went on, “are well under control and we have a path forward for continued redevelopment.”
Though additional elements of the development have to be worked out, the master plan for the Capitol Square area shows that three-story townhomes and three- and four-story condominiums are envisioned.
It also shows a three-story office or residential structure taking shape on the southeast corner of 24th Street and Monroe Boulevard, incorporating the 7-Eleven convenience store there. The grocery store, at least as envisioned in the master plan, would face 24th Street and sit in the middle of Monroe Boulevard and Quincy Avenue. A few parcels in the 10-acre square block would remain in the hands of the original owners.
The city still owns about 5.5 acres of the Capitol Square area to be developed, according to online Weber County property records. Many structures that once sat in the area, including the Rite-Aid building, were torn down to make way for the new development.
