The city of Sedona will soon be the official owner of 401 Jordan Road.
In late April, during a meeting between the Sedona City Council and Sedona Chamber of Commerce, council members and chamber staff discussed the issue of paying off the chamber-owned property and transferring its ownership to the city.
On Tuesday, May 25, council made it official.
“It was always anticipated, when the purchase was made by the chamber, that at some point, whether that was prior to a payoff or after, that the ownership would revert to the city,” City Manager Karen Osburn said, noting that currently the property is used for public parking.
Because $544,440 of contingency funds remain unspent from the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Sedona Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau’s contract, a portion of these funds could be repurposed to pay off the Jordan Road property, and the city could exercise its right to take ownership. The payoff for the property is approximately $296,000.
“The future use of the site is currently unknown, but any deviations from the current use as a public parking lot would be brought forward for city council and community consideration,” a city report states.
Parcel History
In 2017, the Sedona City Council gave its permission for the Sedona Chamber of Commerce to purchase the building with product development funds — collected by the city via bed tax revenue paid by tourists.
The cost of the 5,200-square-foot building, which included a $50,000 upgrade to parking, was $1,015,000. The chamber made a down payment of $390,000 with the plan to pay it off around 2020 or 2021. The property would then be turned over to the city.
When the property was purchased four years ago by the chamber from a private owner, former City Manager Justin Clifton and former Chamber President and CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff shared with council a variety of possible uses.
Options at the time included:
■ Transit hub and staging area: As a transit hub, this site could deflect a portion of visitor traffic off of the main State Route 89A corridor. The hub could serve as the central location for the trailhead transit service and a site for potential future public transit services.
This new staging facility could provide a central location for a pickup and dropoff station for local tour operators. This location allows for a central access point off of the main street, but near enough for convenience and accessibility. This location could offer public restrooms and picnic areas for visitors waiting for transit/tour pickup and will serve as a tactic to revitalize the Jordan Road business district.
■ Employee parking and/or bus parking: With a maximum of up to 93 spaces available, the property could provide parking for Uptown employees. As a potential revenue generator, the private sector could rent spaces for their employees. The site could also be used as additional parking for motorcoach tours.
■ Geotourism center: As both a parking and staging location, the center has the opportunity to reach and educate visitors on how they can be responsible Sedona adventurers. The center could offer informative exhibits, sustainability stories and ideas that could be applied to visitors’ time in the area, as well as back home.
■ Business incubator: The building could include spaces for small, new businesses to rent as start-up office space. Another concept would be to have a co-op working space for area start-ups and entrepreneurs.
■ Demolition of the building: The building could be demolished in order to accommodate additional parking and/or parking structure.
■ City land trade for another property: The property could be traded for another property of equal or greater value to the city at a later date.
“It seems like there are a lot of things that we could potentially do that would be other types of services,” Clifton said in 2017. “That’s why we think this is a good project. Property is limited and they’re not making any more. The bottom line is, there doesn’t appear to be a better opportunity in the foreseeable future.”
