Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski ABCD Corp. has completed a deal to purchase the Gable’s Building along the 1300 block of 11th and 12th avenues. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

The Altoona Blair County Development Corporation has reached an agreement to buy the largest building in the downtown, the one most characteristic of downtown’s heyday and one that the organization regards as a key to continuing the development momentum that the downtown has experienced in recent years.

ABCD will use $1.3 million from its general fund to purchase the former Gable’s Department Store from DSD Investors, which bought it from a Johnstown group in 2021, which in turn bought it earlier that year from a Devorris-Lawruk family partnership that had owned it for 30 years.

With the building once again under local control, ABCD will work with the city and local developers on a plan for transforming the 150,000-square-foot structure from “economically dormant” to “once again economically impactful to both the surrounding businesses, the tax base and the county” — within market and financial constraints, said ABCD President/CEO Stephen McKnight.

ABCD is hoping to hear “feasible scenarios that will accommodate the city’s continued growth trajectory,” ABCD board Chairwoman Ann Benzel said in a news release.

ABCD has worked for more than a decade with the ownership groups to get the building renovated, without success, McKnight said.

Experts in 2017 estimated that it would cost more than $25 million to expose the original department store windows by removing the 1970s brick casing, while also gutting the interior to create a “vanilla” box with wide open interior spaces, according to McKnight.

There was a $3 million state grant available then that required an equal match to help pay for the “daylighting” project, but the successive ownership groups didn’t take advantage of it.

The deadline for using the grant has been extended several times, and it’s not certain whether it may still be available, McKnight said.

It’s “to be determined” whether ABCD would try to take advantage of the grant if it’s still available, he said.

Since then, the parking garage has deteriorated, and for several years, has been unavailable for parking because it has been condemned by the city’s Department of Codes and Inspections.

It’s not yet determined whether the organization would consider using the daylighting grant money to renovate the garage, if that money is still available and if the garage renovation would be a permitted use, McKnight said, adding that he doesn’t know what the garage renovation would cost.

Still, “this is an opportunity to bring (the garage) back online,” the news release states. “(A)ny scenario must include additional parking.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that rehabilitation of the garage will end up being part of the plan for the building, according to McKnight.

There are approximately six current tenants in the Gable’s building.

ABCD plans to work with them over the next several weeks to relocate them out of the building, according to the news release.

“There is no immediate timetable for relocation, but we will work with each to find new office options,” McKnight said.

One of those tenants who has previously been outspoken about the city’s role in issues connected with the building declined to comment about the pending sale.

ABCD wants the tenants out so that it can largely shut the building down and secure it while the parties go through planning, in part to save on heating bills, McKnight said.

“We’re envisioning this (as a process starting) from scratch,” he said.

ABCD appreciates the current owners’ willingness to sell, the news release states.

DSD co-principal Yadwinder “Ricky” Dod of California had no immediate comment on the group’s agreement to sell.

ABCD is not using any legal leverage against the group to effect the purchase, McKnight said.

Under current plans, ABCD would remain the owner “for as long as it takes for a redevelopment strategy to be put in place,” McKnight said.

The building has two sections — one on 11th Avenue that runs from 13th Street to 14th Street and includes the parking garage on the 13th Street end, and a section on 12th Avenue that occupies the half block that ends on 14th Street.

The sections are connected across the alley between the avenues with an enclosed, elevated walkway.

“ABCD wants to acquire Gable’s to continue to realize an exciting and aggressive vision for downtown development that includes housing, commercial spaces and accessible and convenient downtown parking,” stated Benzel in the news release, not meaning to imply those uses will necessarily be realized in the Gable’s building itself. “We see this as the next and necessary step for continued economic renewal for the city.”

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.