'Overjoyed': Ogden OKs plan to rehab deteriorating Union Stock Exchange Building

OGDEN — A historic but deteriorating building in Ogden has a new lease on life.

Ogden officials on Tuesday approved a plan to rehabilitate the vacant Union Stock Exchange Building, completed in 1931, so it can serve as the new headquarters of a defense contractor, GMRE, which now operates out of South Ogden.

The city would essentially give the building to an entity called 600 Exchange Building LLC and provide the developer with $1 million in city funds earmarked for the building's maintenance to help restore it.

The unique Art Deco structure, owned by the city since 2013, has sat vacant for years, fenced off to deter clandestine visitors. Some officials said the opportunity with 600 Exchange and GMRE represents perhaps the last opportunity to save the building, given its decrepit condition.

"If we're not prepared to say yes to this, I think we just need to be prepared to say goodbye to the building at this stage of the game," said Ogden Councilman Ken Richey. "If we truly want to preserve our history, this looks to me like our last opportunity."

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Preservation Utah, which promotes preservation of the state's historic buildings, dubbed it one of the state's "most endangered" structures last year. It sits at 600 W. Exchange Road in Ogden's Trackline Economic Development area, formerly home to a bustling cattle stockyard that has been the focus of a city-led redevelopment effort in recent years focused on drawing in new businesses.

Rich Hyer, chairman of the City Council, said the arrangement with 600 Exchange and GMRE would get the property back on the tax rolls and prevent the building from deteriorating into a "pile of bricks." The Stock Exchange building was designed by Leslie Hodgson, the Ogden architect behind several other notable art deco buildings in Ogden, including Ogden High School and the Ogden Municipal Building.

"I was overjoyed when we finally got somebody that said, 'Yep, we're interested and can do it and have a tenant.' I don't know what else we could ask," Hyer said.

The Ogden Redevelopment Agency Board, made up of City Council members, approved the plan on Tuesday in a 6-1 vote.

Thaine Fischer, the managing member of 600 Exchange Building, said the first step of the renovation process would be getting a team of engineers in the building. He has been involved in other initiatives to restore buildings designed by Hodgson, including the Monarch, which houses art studios, the Ogden Contemporary Arts Gallery and more, and the Peery Apartments building in Ogden.

The Stock Exchange building has sat deteriorating for years and the experts need to make sure rehabilitation is doable, Fischer said. "We just don't know what the scope of that is until we have our team go in and look at that," he said.

A provision in the accord between 600 Exchange and the city allows the developer to withdraw from the project if any environmental or structural issue "renders the project economically infeasible." Presuming the project is deemed feasible, though, Fischer said the rehabilitation work would likely take 1.5 to two years. The agreement includes a development timeline, according to a statement from the city.

"Our plan is to preserve 100 percent of Leslie S. Hodgson's significant design elements, including the Art Deco facade, decorative relief details honoring the stockyards' heritage and interior features," reads the 600 Exchange proposal. Among the unique features of the structure are brick pilasters capped with geometric fluting, cast stone heads of bulls, sheep and hogs, and detailed brickwork, according to Preservation Utah.

Mike McBride, spokesman for the administration of Mayor Ben Nadolski, said earlier estimates had put the building's rehabilitation costs at anywhere from $8 million to $16 million. According to the city, relocating GMRE to Ogden would bring 60 "high-paying" jobs and indirectly create 45 more jobs.

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