If you haven’t driven by the former Pizza Ranch building in Jefferson lately, it looks quite different now than what it used to.

That’s because ever since the City of Jefferson took ownership and found out that the Pizza Ranch franchise was no longer interested in renovating the location following a fire investigation case, the City chose to demolish the exterior. Building Official Nick Sorensen says McConnell Custom Construction removed the facade of the building for $9,000.

The building is actually three separate bays and City Administrator Mike Palmer describes the next steps in the project.

“Right now the City doesn’t have any plans for occupants for any of those but part of the plan is to get new fronts on them. (The plan) Is to utilize that brick, to fix that brick up., put new storefront glass on and new systems to get them ready for sale or for lease.”

 

Palmer notes that there’s still plenty of work to be done on the building, especially if a potential business doesn’t want to rent or purchase the entire building.

“We find a user than we can start making the adjustments that they are looking for, especially the heating and cooling. Right now it’s all one big system for those three separate buildings. So we would have to figure out who’s going to rent what? If somebody just wants to rent just one bay or all of the bays, two bays, how are we going to split things up?”

Palmer adds that the City Council previously amended the urban renewal plan to allow for tax increment financing (TIF) funds of up to $150,000 to be used on any city-owned downtown building for renovations or improvements.