A historic downtown Tucson building thatβs been vacant for nearly 20 years is getting renewed life.
Built in 1897, the building at 72 E. Congress St. has housed everything from banks to dry goods stores, drugstores and lastly was home to the Indian Village Trading Post, the name by which most remember it.
Tucson investors recently bought the three-story, 10,000-square-foot building for $1.5 million and plan to turn it into a restaurant, bar and entertainment venue.
Partners Zach Fenton, Brenndon Scott and Danny Scordato are going in on the $5.5 million project.
The trioβs projects include well-known restaurants and bars, such as Reilly Craft Pizza, Bata, The Boxyard, John Henryβs, Vivace and Uptown Burger.
Fenton has had his eye on the building for years.
βI looked at it a while back, but we had just opened Reilly Pizza and were not ready to take on a second project,β he said. βI feel honored to be able to participate in reactivating a building like this in a location like this.
βA dilapidated building in the center of downtown is not good.β
The first floor of the building has 18-foot ceilings and a mezzanine. The basement walls are of stone laid in lime mortar and vary in thickness from 24 inches to 36 inches.
A name and specific concept for the future venue are still in the works.
βWe hope to make an announcement within six months,β Fenton said.
Developers are planning to create a restaurant, bar and entertainment venue in the three-story building that formerly housed the Indian Trading Post downtown on Congress St. and Scott Ave.
The building will require much interior renovation with minimal change to the façade since it is a registered historic place.
βItβs definitely no spring chicken,β Fenton said. βWith it sitting vacant so long, itβs showing its age.β
Preserving history
The Indian Village Trading Post began as the Rebeil Block in 1897 or 1898. It was built for Andres Rebeil, a French immigrant who married into the prominent Redondo family, becoming a Tucson businessman and county supervisor, according to records filed with the city. The architect and builder are unknown.
At the corner of Congress Street and Scott Avenue, the building is the last on the block, once known as the Thrifty Block, to be redeveloped.
Most of its neighboring buildings were torn down, and new ones built for spaces such as the Hexagon Mining offices and The Monica restaurant.
The Indian Village Trading Post was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Through the years, the 126-year-old building housed several retailers and was even home to Tucson Rapid Transit, which bought the cityβs horse-drawn streetcar transit system in 1905.
Tucson Rapid Transit added an electric streetcar system the following year, ending a 25-year era of animal-powered transit in Tucson.
The Indian Village Trading Post site was its first downtown terminal.
βIβm tremendously happy,β said Ken Scoville, a Tucson historian and preservationist. βIβve been worried about that building.β
He said it is one of the oldest remaining structures on Congress Street.
βI like the fact that, finally, the people living in Tucson have gone full circle from wanting to tear everything down to wanting to preserve the historic resources we have,β Scoville said.
The emergence of the restaurant/bar concept was greeted with much enthusiasm by the Rio Nuevo District, which generates income from sales tax.
βThis is an economic juggernaut,β Board chairman Fletcher McCusker said in approving the deal to contribute $2 million toward the renovation.
βWeβve worked really hard on activating Congress, and this property is an older historic property (and) without our getting involved, this doesnβt get developed,β he said. βAnd the fact that Zach Fenton can bring in a Danny Scordato β probably one of the most renowned chefs in Tucson β to bring him downtown is a massive victory for our community.β
Renovation of the building is expected to take about two years.
Hunt for iconic occupant
The new owners are hoping to bring one of the buildingβs iconic occupants back home.
An Indian hoop dancer adorned the building for many years before it was taken down for building renovations in the late 1980s.
The Taos Hoop Dancer, a downtown landmark for 30 years at 72 E. Congress at the front of the Indian Village Trading Post was taken down when the store was renovated.Β
βFor three decades, it was a fixture on East Congress Street Downtown: a 10-foot neon Indian dancing above Indian Village Trading Post.
βAt dusk, glowing hoops welcomed nighttime shoppers as the Taos Indian hoop dancer went through his preordained rhythms.
βBut in the early β70s, Indian Village, as it is now known, started closing before dark. The neon went cold.
βJust before renovation of the building in 1986, the dancer was bought, removed, rehabbed and stored for safekeeping,β former Star columnist Bonnie Henry wrote in 2002.
Attempts to reach the business partners were unsuccessful and local historians were unsure if they still have it or the neon signβs whereabouts.
Fenton would like to hang it up once again.
βOh yeah,β he said, βIβm planning to look for it.β
Tucson's Department of Transportation and Mobility shared an aerial view of the latest progress in phase three of the Downtown Links project on Jan. 6. The new roadway and multi-use path are part of the lengthy city project that will connect Barraza-Aviation Parkway and Interstate 10. Video courtesy of Tucson Department of Transportation & Mobility.
