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A building for sale is money in the bank.
The owners of the former Lewiston State Bank property in Lewiston, UT, sure hope so, anyway. The building is listed for $249,000.
To say it needs some work is an understatement. In fact, it needs a complete overhaul. But that’s no longer of interest to Katie and Brad Gibbons, who bought the building as an investment in June 2023.
“I’m a dental hygienist, and one of my patients mentioned this property; and I said, ‘Yes, I want it; I don’t even care what state it’s in,’” Katie Gibbons reveals. “I signed the contract before we even walked through it.”
Then they saw it.
“The roof drain had not been connected for decades, so the roof was kind of rotten, the upstairs floor was ruined, and the main floor was ruined,” she recalls. “It was like three levels of wood just falling down. It was in bad shape.”
The former bank is in need of a total overhaul.
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The 3,312-square-foot building dates back to 1924. Of the bank’s original furnishings, only the vault remains.
“The door is rusted and won’t swing,” Gibbons says. “The vault is there and the original door is there. It will probably have to be removed and used as a decoration somewhere.”
The couple bought the property in hopes of turning it into a single-family home and flipping it.
“It would be large and just incredibly unique,” Gibbons says. “I would use that big, main, open room as a great room with kitchen, dining, and living [areas]. The vault would be a pantry.”
The Gibbonses have poured money into the bank project and are selling it to fund another project they’re working on—their own house, which they are building nearby.
“I really love it, but we’re paying a lot in interest; so if I did sell it, it would help fund my house,” Gibbons says of the bank building. “That’s the only reason I listed it.”
While in a state of disrepair now, the former bank actually has an interesting history. Architect Fred Hodgson designed the building, and several of his other designs are on the National Register of Historic Places.
“It was very fancy at the time,” says Gibbons, who owns the building’s original blueprints.
She says the high ceilings, windows, and brick give it an industrial feel.
“It’s so unique,” she adds. “I’ve never seen anything like it. If it was a single-family home, it could be modern industrial and yet cozy.”
Gibbons estimates the bank project will probably cost about $200,000 to finish, and the buyer might need some patience with the permitting process.
The property is currently zoned commercial, but the listing notes that Lewiston City Planning and Zoning has “expressed willingness to accommodate a zoning change” to other uses, such as multifamily, single family, or mixed use.
Gibbons says she loves the bank project and hopes someone else will want to finish the job.
“I want a buyer who’s going to see it through to the end,” she says.
The post Investment With Interest: 100-Year-Old Bank Building in UT Offers High-Yield Potential for $249K appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
