Weld County plans to buy historic downtown Greeley buildings

GREELEY — A pair of iconic downtown Greeley buildings that drove more than 100 years of business and the city’s first major downtown mural will soon make way for parking. But the news is not as sad as Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi,” in which she laments the idea of paving paradise for a parking lot.

The buildings, one a warehouse at 827 Seventh St., and the other, George’s Repair Shop at 825 Seventh St., are in a sad state of repair, and operator Don Eckhardt is ready for the next chapter of his life after being there since he was a kid. He’s 72 now. For him, it’s a great time to walk away from the repair business that he says burned him out during the pandemic. That’s when no one had anything to do, but they gave him more business than he could handle.

“Everyone got their bicycles out,” Eckardt said Tuesday upon hearing the news that the Weld County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 Monday to buy the buildings. “It took all the fun out of stuff. I had it constantly. It was thick. It was the best business I’d ever had in history. And it burned me out.”

The commissioners agreed to purchase the buildings for $820,000 with the condition that the family or its agent would be able to secure a demolition permit from the city of Greeley prior to closing on the sale, said Weld County Attorney Bruce Barker. 

County records indicate both buildings were built in 1889. The original business there may have been a blacksmith shop, according to Greeley Museums.  Eckhardt’s grandfather, George Eckhardt, opened his repair business in 1919, when he moved into the building to work in partnership with Mann’s Sporting Goods. The business officially became George’s Repair Shop in 1937 and it has been operated by the Eckhardt family since. Don Eckhardt said he is looking forward to a little downtime.

Meanwhile, Bianca Fisher, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, has mixed feelings. She said it’s sad to see Greeley’s first big mural of Einstein come down on top of losing a little bit of the city’s history. Armando Silva created the Einstein mural on the side of the warehouse in 2011 and added to it in 2020 with muralist Zach Keiss. It was the mural that kicked off the city’s now 40 mural projects scattered on buildings throughout the 55-block downtown district.

“My one sadness is seeing Einstein go,” Fisher said. “On an emotional level, that was really special. It had a really beautiful run.”

She said she is glad the Eckhardts are in lock-step to pass the baton for the next use. 

“On the one hand there has been a bit of a history, so certainly there’s a sensitivity to buildings coming down and a surface parking replacing it,” she said. “One of the great assets of downtown is the character in its history. Something that just adds to the genuine tried and true feeling of downtown.

“On the flip side, you look at that property, and it will require a tremendous amount of resources to get it to be a habitable place, but it is surrounded by parking, which is owned by the county,” Fisher said. “It would be challenging to sell a dilapidated building where there is no parking associated with it. In a lot of ways, it made sense for the county. It has the Chase building across the street, and this services those employees working there. And I really do appreciate that the county has been great with the city to allow usage of that lot on the weekends.”

There is no date certain as to when that building will change hands, when George’s will finally close its doors, or when the parking lot will be built. 

“I have a lot of stuff to get out of there,” Eckhardt said. “You wouldn’t believe how much we have after doing business for 100 years. I have two buildings and one is just a warehouse full of stuff. I’ve dragged out about 60 bicycles already. I’ve got bikes from back in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. It’s been a good ride. I can’t complain.”

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