OGDEN – An ambitious redevelopment project in downtown Ogden has begun to take shape on an expanse of ground along 26th Street between Grant and Lincoln Avenues.

This February, Centerville-based developer J. Fisher Cos. joined Ogden City officials to break ground on WonderBlock, a concept that surfaced in the Make Ogden Downtown Master Plan that city officials adopted in 2020 as a roadmap for the next 25 years.

According to that Plan, the WonderBlock redevelopment project will set the standard for value and density in the city’s historic core.  

At full build-out in about four years, the mixed-use WonderBlock project will include:

• 354 apartments
• 100,000 square feet of office space
• 50,000 square feet of retail
• 20,000 square-foot grocery store
• Small hotel
• Pathways and public space
• Parking structures with 1,110-plus spaces

“The objective at this point is that it will all be done in fall 2027, so it’s relatively aggressive,” said David Sawyer, Ogden’s deputy division manager for Business Development.

Sawyer described the $188 million WonderBlock project as “episode one” of five in the Make Ogden plan. 

The sizable project provoked pushback from some residents due to how it would be financed. In November 2022, Ogden history buff Steve Jones alerted residents in a Facebook post that key City Council votes would come up in early 2023 regarding WonderBlock.

“At a high level there is a lot to like about the WonderBlock project if you look at only the physical plans and look at them in isolation from the rest of Ogden … financially this is not a good deal, or even a fair deal, for Ogden City and our citizens,” Jones wrote. “We are paying for way too much and mortgaging our future to do it. The developer should be footing the bill for all of the project.”

WonderBlock’s funding consists of $124 million from J. Fisher Cos., and $64 million in tax increment bonds approved by the Ogden City Council in a 4-3 vote on January 10, 2023.

Construction of WonderBlock’s two parking structures is being funded by $85 million in lease revenue bonds, which Councilmembers also approved in a 5-2 vote that same night.

Sawyer said that WonderBlock’s apartment dwellers will be able to park in the new parking structure as an option on their lease.

The parking management system will keep track of how many of the 1,100-plus spaces are open at all times, Sawyer added, “to ensure that spaces for the residences remain available.”

CREWS AT WORK

A recent trip to the site revealed massive excavation and construction in progress.

“What you’re seeing there now is the first parking structure in the middle of the block and then everything else will be built around it,” Sawyer said by phone in late July. “That parking structure will continue to be built up over the next year or so, and should be done around September 2025.” 

Crews are also busy “digging a big hole” for a second subterranean parking structure just west of the first parking structure, Sawyer said. Once complete, these two facilities will supply more than 1,100 parking spaces – of which 120 ground floor spots will be reserved for Ogden’s nearby 2nd District Court.

“Then work will start on the adjacent buildings,” Sawyer said, including the 354 market-rate residential units with ground-floor retail plus a small grocery store facing 26th Street and Lincoln Avenue.

WonderBlock will also feature about 100,000 square feet of class A office space, Sawyer said, acknowledging that addition as “counterintuitive” to the current commercial real estate market.

“There really hasn’t been newer class A office space built in our area for a long time,” Sawyer said. “We have specific companies that have that in mind when they’re moving to Ogden, so that will fill a niche that we think will be a high demand for our specific area.”

Last but likely not least will be construction of a small hotel with its front door facing Historic 25th Street. Sawyer said that relocation of 2nd District Court parking freed up that particular parcel. 

“It will be built in a way that is complementary to (25th Street),” Sawyer said.

WonderBlock will also include pedestrian pathways and an interior, “programmable” public space.

“You could hold community events there,” Sawyer said. “There is a plan for one of the walls of the parking structure that would be suitable for large screen projections. Then there will be landscape or cement surfaces in the middle for gatherings of different types, whether it be pop-up entertainment or music.”