Old Town renewed
Recent census numbers have shown that Idaho is, in fact, the fastest growing state in the nation. A statistic that many have taken notice of.
Denis Clijsters, a real estate investor for Bricks & More, is one of them. The Belgian is part of a group of investors who are seeing the potential for a population boom in Southeastern Idaho and trying to get ahead of the housing curve.
Clijsters and his group have made a few major investments in Old Town recently. Starting with the Fargo apartment buildings several months ago, the group has also purchased the Station Square building and the restaurant & bar in the Yellowstone Hotel, formerly known as The Bridge.
The Fargo is already seeing the impacts of the group. Apartments are currently being worked on, essentially being stripped down and made to look new, in the more than 100-year-old building.
But they aren’t the only people looking into Pocatello. The Northgate project is expected to be a major piece in Southeastern Idaho, potentially bringing 10,000 new homes to the region.
Aware of this, Clijsters actually thinks this will benefit Old Town as well, believing that many of these people will be searching for authentic experiences they can’t get from a strip mall.
When looking at the investments Clijsters has made so far, one thing is the same. Frank Paradice.
Paradice was an architect who had his hands in the designs of many Old Town properties. He is also a personal hero of Clijsters, who seems to only be interested in properties he worked on.
The Station Square building was not a venture Clijsters was initially sold on. More interested in residential space than commercial, the investor changed his mind once he saw the 22 apartments on the building’s third floor.
Unoccupied for more than 40 years, the apartments show just that. Floors lined with newspapers from the early 70’s and storage boxes which the businesses on the lower floors had kept up there are the only signs of life.
One of the pieces of Old Town that is so attractive to Clijsters is its history, one of the reasons he kept the name of the Fargo and the reason he plans to change the name of the Station Square apartments back to what they once were, the Stafford apartments.
The Belgian really does believe that these changes will draw people into Old Town and hopes to see it flourish. Seeing the opportunity for more and more investments in the area, it would be hard to imagine that these will be his last.
People are already moving into the Fargo’s refurbished apartments and spots in the Stafford should be available by next summer.
