North College building to get fresh face

FORT COLLINS – If it was a house, it would be a “fixer-upper.”
By the time Earnie Garner is done with the former T&T Tires building,
331 N. College Ave., he wants the property to be the commercial
equivalent of a “trophy home.”
Garner recently acquired the 9,000-square-foot building on the north
edge of downtown Fort Collins, partly as an investment and partly for
civic pride.
“When I ? do the façade change, it will basically be an expansion of
Old Town to the north,´ said Garner, who has operated Just Office
Furniture at 400 N. College Ave. since the early 1970s.
The building, vacant for two years, was built in 1949 and served as
an auto dealership in its early years. The initial use is reflected
in the glass storefront that exists today.
“It looked like a tire building,” Garner said. “When we finish, it’s
going to look really quite nice.”
Garner’s $400,000 remodeling plans call for a new brick façade that
will give the property the outward appearance of two buildings, and
the flavor of the central business district.
The new owner is keeping his options open for the future use of the
property, but he expects to divide the building between two users,
one of which could be his own store.
“If I have the opportunity to rent it, I’ll rent the 331 property and
locate my furniture business someplace else,” Garner said. “But if
nobody comes along to rent the property, I’ll occupy it.”
Garner said he plans to keep his 400 North College property, which he
plans to market for office uses.
Whoever the tenants are at 331 N. College, the project is a boost to
the evolving North College scene, said Mykal Torgerson, Garner’s
architect and himself a North College property owner at 223 N.
College.
“When I purchased down here, I anticipated Old Town as we know it
would be growing north,” Torgerson said. “I think that’s been helped
recently by some of the city intersection projects too.”
The 200 block of North College is especially active.
Developers have proposed a high-end loft apartment project, the Pine
Street Lofts, 251 Pine St., which abuts North College. A proposal is
also on the drawing board for a hotel-conference center at the corner
of North College and Jefferson Street.
Torgerson, who like Garner, invested “several hundred thousand
dollars” in remodeling his property, has grand plans for the 331
building.
“We’re attempting to make the north wall of his building sort of a
gateway architecturally into the Old Town area,” Torgerson said.
“We’re trying to enhance what is right now a ? boring façade.”

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