A building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Phoenix is getting ready to be transformed into a new restaurant at 3rd Avenue south of Roosevelt Street in Downtown Phoenix.
The Seargent-Oldaker home, a brick Craftsman bungalow built in 1909 and once home to prominent area leader Elizabeth Oldaker, was being threatened to be demolished, but a recent grant has changed plans. Phoenix City Council approved a $400,000 grant to help relocate the home to the northwest corner of the lot “to facilitate adaptive reuse of the building as commercial restaurant space,” according to city documents.
When the previous property owners requested to demolish the building, Dan Garcia, chair of Phoenix’s Historic Preservation Commission, stepped in and worked with the owners to help find a solution to save the home, including a possible relocation. LiveForward Development, who bought the bungalow in June 2023, will now save the building. The bungalow and yet-to-be-named restaurant will be moved roughly 12 feet from its existing location, creating enough space to add 100 low-scale apartment units around the building.
The new restaurant will be inspired by establishments like The Vig, Cibo, and Pizzeria Bianco, but additional details have yet to be shared. LiveForward Development plans to move the building in early 2025 and begin construction on the workforce housing units shortly after. While the group focuses on “middle missing” housing in the Phoenix area and typically develops vacant lots, the company said it couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to reuse the Seargent-Oldaker home.
“We were a good fit to save it if it was possible,” Ben Patton, a Partner with LiveForward Development, tells AZ Central. “So, we just believed in it, we believed in the idea of preservation if we could pull it off,”
