Now it’s a charred shell. But soon you could meet or live at this downtown building.

When walking past the burned-out structure in downtown Olympia that used to be Griswold’s Office Supply, it may be hard to picture a clean, new building where students, entrepreneurs and budding business owners gather and collaborate.

The open glass-and-brick first floor would look nothing like the rainbow-covered plywood that now hides the building’s facade on Fourth Avenue. The upper floors would contain small apartments, intended to be affordable housing for city dwellers.

That’s the vision that Big Rock Capital Partners and architect Garner Miller, of MSGS Architects, presented at a neighborhood meeting last week.

The new building, dubbed the Avalon Project, is a collaboration between Olympia’s city government and Big Rock Capital Partners. The city purchased the 0.17 acre property in 2015 for $300,000, and the developer will tear down the existing building, build the new mixed-use structure, and eventually purchase the property under the city’s Downtown Community Renewal Plan.

The building has been an empty shell since August 2004, when a fire destroyed what was then Griswold's Office Supply & Equipment, said Renee Sunde, the city’s economic development director. Now, the building’s walls are propped up with braces, and there’s no roof.

“It’s a property that certainly has been blighted,” Sunde said. “And it’s certainly one that people notice as they drive up Fourth Avenue.”

But the old building won’t come down until next spring — the demolition would have to be permitted and is subject to environmental review, said Tim Smith, lead city planner for the project. Permit applications haven’t been submitted yet.

Tear-down can’t come soon enough, said Old School Pizzeria building owner Connie Phegley. Her building shares a wall with the Griswold Building, and the blighted structure has had a significant impact on her business.

“Allowing it to sit empty with no roof has caused significant water damage,” Phegley said at the meeting.

Phegley has had to pay to fix water damage and add a cap to the top of the wall to prevent additional issues.

The name of the Avalon Project is a nod to the building’s historic significance, Miller said. The 1928 building initially held the Avalon Theater which, according to The Olympian’s archives, was the city’s first movie theater. Because of the fire damage, it’s not feasible to save anything of the historic structure and bring back its historic character.

Miller said it’s important to use the large, brick building across the street and the character of the rest of downtown as context for the new building. Therefore, preliminary designs show a brick first floor with large windows, and a sidewalk-covering canopy out front. The upper residential floors would have views of the Capitol, Puget Sound and the Olympics.

However, developers are unsure whether the new building will have three or four stories, said Ryan Clintworth of Big Rock Capital Partners. That ultimately depends on the budget, because each floor will cost roughly $1 million.

The ground floor would bring something new to Olympia: a co-working space, like those seen in larger cities such as Seattle, Portland and New York. The space would be developed and operated collaboratively by The Evergreen State College and the Thurston Economic Development Council.

Customers would be able to rent space there by the month or day, and be able to use work stations with desks, monitors and printers. Small conference spaces and larger meeting rooms also will be available for rent.

“Thriving communities provide a space for people to interact,” said Michael Cade, director of the Economic Development Council.

“We know that this is going to be successful and draw upon the things that make Olympia unique.”

The co-working space would be particularly helpful to current students and recent graduates of Evergreen, said John Carmichael, chief of staff to the college’s president. He said about 25 percent of people who graduated from Evergreen 15 years ago are now self-employed or own a business. This type of space would help such alumni get started in their careers prior to and after graduation.

And a partnership with the EDC would foster collaboration with more established entrepreneurs, Carmichael said.

Upstairs, apartments ranging in size from 450 to 600 square feet will be touted as “affordable housing,” Clintworth said. The company will apply for funding through a federal affordable housing program. In return, at least 51 percent of units in the building must be offered at 80 percent or less of the median rent for the area.

The median monthly rent for Thurston County — for units ranging from studio apartments to four-bedroom apartments — is $1,093, according to Tom Cain, of Seattle-based Apartment Insights.

Many of the Avalon apartments will be studio-style “efficiency units,” designed to embrace urban living, Clintworth said. None of the units will have parking spaces.

“We don’t have the space to provide it, and the economics don’t support it,” he said.

Because the project would replace an existing building, the developers aren’t required to create new parking.

The lack of parking rang alarms for some of the people at the June 14 meeting. But Leonard Bauer, deputy director of the city’s planning department, pointed out that the city is in the middle of creating a downtown parking strategy. Anyone with questions or concerns can attend an open house at City Hall at 6:30 p.m. July 13.

This story was originally published June 21, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Now it’s a charred shell. But soon you could meet or live at this downtown building.."