The historic E.S Wakelin Grocery Company Warehouse has stood on the corner of 5th Avenue and Jackson Street for 106 years, but the days of one of downtown Phoenix’s oldest warehouse buildings are numbered.
On Wednesday, the City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Office approved a demolition request for The Wakelin building for citing economic hardship as its main motivation.
Built in 1913, the Wakelin building was a warehouse which supplied E.S Wakelin Grocer Company. The Arizona Republic reported that the company was “now probably the largest business establishment in Phoenix” in 1911.
The two-story brick building included a basement and office spaces for office rooms. In 1913 the Arizona Republic reported that the structure was expected to cost about $10,000– about $250,000 in today’s market.
The Wakelin building received its historical property designation in 1984.
Historic Preservation Planner Kevin Weight said that the building is a meaningful example of the early history of Phoenix.
“It represents that whole theme of commerce and railroad related industry and this is one of the few remaining buildings that we have from this era,” Weight said.
But a century after construction, the building stands without a roof, exposed to the elements, and according to an email by the City’s Building Official Stephen Dudley, has been classified as being unsafe.
“Technically, this doesn’t meet the definition of a building at this point,” said Attorney Jason Morris of Withey Morris, who represents the building’s property owners, Downtown PHX Storage, LLC.
“A building is defined by Phoenix as a roof supported by four walls. It’s essentially an abandoned structure, but not a building,” Morris said.
The building was approved to be demolished in 2014 before current owners Downtown PHX Storage, LLC bought the property in December 2016 for $1.6 million dollars with the intention of rehabilitating the building and making the space a self-storage unit.
However, a monsoon in July of 2018 led to the collapse of the roof which Weight said “pretty much finished the job” and further deteriorated the building.
The historic preservation office’s staff report stated that the cost of rehabilitation would be upwards of $3 million.
The meeting’s Historic Preservation Hearing Officer Joe Viola said “rehabbing something, particularly if it’s had neglect and wear like that can be a pretty expensive proposition.”
George Pasquel of Withey Morris filed the request for demolition and cited economic hardship as their motivation in filing the demolition.
In order for an income-producing property to qualify for economic hardship, the property must show that a reasonable rate of return on their investment cannot be obtained from a property should the structure be rehabilitated to retain historic features.
Morris said that upon purchase his clients were committed to the project. He said that his clients had “went to every effort to try and make that the reality on this site even when others had not.”
“But for that storm, roughly a year after their due diligence and their planning of the rehabilitation of the building, that would have become a reality,” Morris said.
No future plans have been discussed for the future of the property and, as of now, a demolition date for the building has not been scheduled.
Contact the reporter at imrosale@asu.edu.
