By Curmudgeon
There's some good news [and some not so good news] for Ogden in this morning's Standard-Examiner on the business pages:
• 6,900-square-foot bookstore to anchor new six-story buildingDeseret Book's new store at The Junction opens today. It fills 6900 sq. ft. on the ground level of the Earnshaw Building.
While I confess I had been hoping for a general purpose bookstore at the Junction --- an indie if possible [but that was unlikely] or a chain like Borders [not Barnes and Ignoble] --- rather than an LDS bookstore. But it's good for Ogden to have the space rented, and the property generating tax revenues.
The not so good news comes at the end of Mr. Schwebke's story. He reports that the second floor of the Earnshaw building has 7K sq. ft. plus of office space [no word on whether any of it is leased yet]. The ground floor still has just under 10K sq. ft. apparently still unleased. And, the story notes that the top four floors of the building "will have 28 condominiums." Ah, but when will it have those oft promised supposed to have been completed years ago condos to boost residential occupancy at The Junction [and so live-in customers for Junction and downtown business]? The building's owner was just a tad vague on that:
"Earnshaw said completion of the entire building will depend on how quickly the economy rebounds."
English translation: "When will the condos be done? How the hell should I know?"
That was the bad news. Still, the opening of Deseret Books today is a step in the right direction.
