(rshsdepot) Riverside, CA

[Jim Dent <jdent_@_erols.com>]

-From Inland Empire Online...

Downtown Riverside's old Santa Fe Depot might soon be for sale. 

The Riverside County Transportation Commission spent $120,000 to buy 
the 73-year-old building from the city of Riverside and to keep it from 
further decay. But now the agency is preparing to unload the depot, citing 
high restoration and operating costs. 

"It's too costly of a building to just have there," said John 
Standiford, commission spokesman. 

Transportation officials hope the depot will attract new owners who 
will restore and convert it into offices or some type of retail business, 
while at the same time capitalizing on the structure's history. 

The depot, next to North Park on Mission Inn Avenue, is on the fringe 
of a retail boom that includes the Coffee Depot, opened in the old Union 
Pacific train station, and the recently opened Cafe Sevilla. 

"It's heartening to see something really taking off in that area," 
Standiford said. 

The commission has received some informal inquiries from developers 
interested in the depot, he said. 

Offices or a restaurant would be good for that area, said Bob Wales, 
Riverside assistant city manager. 

"For all too many years, the Santa Fe Depot has sat empty," 
he said. 

The commission bought the depot in 1997 from Riverside, which had acquired 
it from Birtcher Marketplace Partners in exchange for other property nearby. 

The depot, just east of Highway 91, opened in 1927. The stucco on the 
Mission-style facade is chipped, and the windows and doors are boarded 
up. The cobalt-blue tile circle-and-cross Santa Fe logo can be seen from 
the front and back of the building. 

The depot served passengers until 1967, according to the commission, 
and then was used for ticket sales. It functioned as a freight station 
-From 1971 until it was shuttered in 1983. 

Transportation officials bought the depot, intending to restore it and 
use it as crew quarters for the nearby Metrolink station, but that never 
panned out. Metrolink crews are housed in a trailer near the station. 

There was talk about turning the depot into a transportation museum. 
But, as new transportation officials came on board the commission, Standiford 
said, interest in spending money to restore and maintain the building 
waned. 

The decision to sell the depot has cleared a commission committee and 
is due to go before the full board later this month.

------------------------------