The Downtown Joplin Alliance in Joplin, Missouri, this month will ask for redevelopment proposals for the city’s long-closed Union Depot and assess them in February.
A consultant estimated the cost of restoring the century-old site would be $6.7 million, though others have estimated it as high as $10 million.
Among the ideas for the depot are a microbrewery, a food hall, meeting space, office and retail space, plus possibly a museum or railcars as overnight lodging.
The Joplin Globe newspaper reported:
Once the date is announced for proposals to be submitted, that process will be open until February 2024, said Lori Haun, executive director of the Downtown Joplin Alliance, at a public meeting Tuesday. She said a contract was signed with a real estate firm, the Glenn Group, last year to list the depot for sale nationally and that there is interest out there. […]
Joe Borgstrom, a consultant with Place+Main Advisers of East Lansing, Michigan, presented details of two studies his firm conducted about the depot. […]
He said that a 4% return on investment could be realized from a restoration plan that would cost an estimated $6.7 million. About $2.7 million of those costs could be defrayed by using both state and national historic tax credits available because the building was declared a historic landmark in 1973.
The floor plan of the depot offers about 22,000 square feet. Borgstrom said a brew pub or distillery and meeting space could occupy the south side of the building with a food hall and kitchen, office and/or retail spaces on the north end. The second floor could hold an art gallery or rental meeting space. Another potential use for part of the space would be a museum. […]
A suggested lodging option on the property using rail cars adapted for guest stays is worth further consideration too, Borgstrom said.
Borgstrom said in another recent Globe report that the depot was “a phenomenal building” and “a tremendous opportunity.”
In a recent Globe editorial, readers offered some of their ideas for the depot. Some of them sounded pretty good.
Union Depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places 50 years ago, the first structure in Joplin to earn that designation.
In 2021, it was listed on Missouri’s “Places in Peril” by the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation.
Joplin Union Depot is off North Main Street (aka bypass Route 66 from the 1930s to 1955) and West A Street on the city’s north side.
The Broadway alignment of Route 66 also runs just south of the property.
(Image of Joplin Union Depot in Joplin, Missouri, by Kelly via Flickr)