'Concept' unveiled for Union Depot as part of effort to entice developers, investors

Jun. 22—Picture a Union Depot that offers downtown lodging in Joplin, yet rooms for visitors are not in the depot itself but in restored rail cars that look out over the nearby tracks.

Inside, a restored room celebrates another era of Joplin's transportation story — Route 66.

Outside, a trailhead connects Union Depot and its visitors and employees to the city's expanding network of walking, running and cycling trails. Perhaps there's even a bike rental at the depot, as well.

All of that was part of a "concept" unveiled Wednesday during an event held by the Downtown Joplin Alliance at Pennington Station, 518 S. Virginia Ave.

Sabine Martin, Kansas State University coordinator of Technical Assistance to Brownfields, and president of CTOR Solutions, and Pat Crawford, director of the School of Design at South Dakota State University, made the presentation.

Students and professors from both schools were present for a community input session held in February to discuss possible uses for the historic railroad depot. They also met with community leaders and collected surveys to see what vision Joplin has for the property. That February meeting drew more than 80 people and ideas discussed included a downtown boutique hotel, tying it into the local trail system, bringing train rides or train service back to the community, a food court with indoor and outdoor seating, as well as retail spaces and art studios.

The presenters at Wednesday's meeting said any future for the depot must be multi- or mixed use, rather than a single focus, must be economically sustainable, and must emphasize "connectivity," linking Joplin not just to trails but also to the community of people who work and live downtown.

After the earlier meetings and other steps to gather input, students from SDSU put together drawings for the depot that Lori Haun, director of the Downtown Joplin Alliance, said could be forwarded to any interested developers and investors.

"The question I get the most with the building," said Haun, "is what shall it be?"

Union Depot's past

Kansas City architect Louis Curtiss, who has been called the "the Frank Lloyd Wright of Kansas City," designed the depot on North Main Street. Construction began in 1910 and the first train arrived the following year. The depot's concrete construction, with its tall, curved windows and angled features, helped Curtiss earn a national reputation. According to the alliance, "Curtiss' design incorporated geometric embellishments to create a Prairie-modern style building."

The last passenger train, operated by the Kansas City Southern Railway Co., was the Southern Belle that left Joplin in November 1969; mail trains ended soon afterward. The depot has been sitting empty since, although it was later added to the National Register of Historic Places.

But the depot was declared one of Missouri's "Places in Peril" in 2021 by the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation. The list, which is compiled annually, cites endangered historic properties nominated by concerned residents and decided upon by a committee of preservation advocates. The state organization said the building is "threatened by a number of factors, including neglect and deterioration as well as vandalism. The once white painted walls are covered with graffiti."

Members of the DJA's Endangered Properties Program have been working with the Glenn Group, a Joplin commercial real estate firm, and advisers from the two universities to find a 21st century future for the 113-year-old train station.

Recently, the DJA also had an engineer examine the building, and he assessed it as structurally sound, but said it could deteriorate in a few years without maintenance or repair work.

Wednesday's presentation laid out a concept that includes rail cars to the east of the depot for lodging, with bunk beds in some cars for children and deluxe rooms in other cars for adults.

Inside, the depot could house a microbrewery or coffee bar.

"We are respecting and retaining the historic fabric," said Crawford.

It could include a restaurant or bakery in the east wing, and a flexible-use space that might be used by bands one day, and could be rented for a birthday party the next. Offices in the second floor could look over businesses below. There also could be a rooftop and an outdoor patio.

"We did put in the idea of a bike rental down here by the depot," Crawford said.

Haun said other steps in finding a future for the building include consulting with an economic expert about the possible uses as part of a gap analysis to determine what other services and businesses are needed downtown.

Haun said there are about 350 apartments downtown and another 200 in development or planning, and that about 5,000 people work downtown in 500 business.

The goal will be to pull all that together, and while the developer is going to make the final decisions, this helps give them some ideas and also shows the kind of options Joplin residents have indicated they would support.

David Glenn, of the Glenn Group, is handling the marketing of the property, which has been owned by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources' State Historic Preservation Office since 1998. For most of that time, the state was not allowed to market the building, which is something Haun and Glenn have been trying to do in recent years.

After the presentation, he said any development of the depot would have to be able to provide a reasonable return for investors, but he has always believed it has great potential if the right investors can be found, and as a former contractor, he also has said he thinks the building is easily adaptable for multiple uses, inside and out.

He has three criteria he wants a developer/investor to meet:

—They must prove they have the financial capability to see the project through.

—They must develop and follow a professionally-designed master plan.

—They must be timely about the development. "We're not going to let somebody buy it and sit on it for four or five years," Glenn said.

He called the Union Depot a "diamond in the rough" that he said could become the kind of attraction that could lure people from the interstates to the downtown.

"It has amazing potential, but I have got to be able to prove that to an investor," Glenn added.

Andy Ostmeyer is the metro editor at the Globe. He is a graduate of Kansas State University who has worked at the Globe for 38 years. His email address is aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com.