POCATELLO — A local hairdresser and investor partners have recently acquired two large buildings in Historic Downtown Pocatello.

JD Hansen, who owns the North Main Street medical spa and full-service salon, J & Co., quietly purchased this past fall the buildings located at 310 E. Center St. and 928 N. Main Street in Downtown Pocatello.

“These two buildings are huge parts of the history of Pocatello,” Hansen said. “I love Downtown Pocatello and I have kept my businesses in Downtown Pocatello since I started. It’s very important to me to be able to own these two buildings, revitalize them, bring them back to life and make Downtown the area that it needs to be.”

Known as the Church-White Building, the building at 310 E. Center St. was designed by Pocatello architect Frank H. Paradice Jr. and was constructed in the autumn of 1915, according to the Downtown Pocatello website. It was the longtime home of the People’s Market, which opened in 1918, and served as the Tourraine Hotel from 1920 to 1975. It also housed the Mikado Pool Hall and Barbershop during the 1920’s which served Pocatello’s Japanese community.

The building was also known as the Nixon building after Samuel Nixon, the owner between the Great Depression and the 1950s.

The 63,000-square-foot building houses both commercial spaces and residential studio apartments. The first floor of the building houses seven commercial spaces.

The current occupants of the commercial spaces on the first floor include the ChubbyZ’ restaurant, the Barricade arcade bar and the Nerd Church Gaming retro video game and board game shop.

Hansen says two other businesses are soon expected to move into the vacant commercial spaces on the southeast corner of the building that faces East Center Street, including one space that will be converted into Downtown Pocatello Airbnb vacation rental, Hansen said. Two commercial spaces facing North Second Avenue are still available for lease, Hansen said.

The second floor of the building houses the Center Street Lofts — 48 studio-style apartments with three communal kitchen spaces and nearly 20 shared bathrooms.

“We’ve recently went in and completely remodeled the kitchens and are currently redoing all of the bathrooms,” Hansen said. “Some of the apartments have bathrooms in their rooms as well and we just secured a grant from Idaho Power to redo all of the lighting inside.”

Occupancy of the apartments typically hovers around 90 percent, said Hansen, adding that any person interested in living in the Center Street Lofts can contact him at 208-681-9751.

Hansen did not disclose how much he paid to acquire the 310 E. Center St. building, but it was most recently assessed at $397,600, according to Bannock County Assessor’s office data.

The other property Hansen recently purchased at 928 N. Main St. also houses both commercial and residential spaces.

The building was completely refurbished about 10 years ago, according to a listing for the property on Loopnet.com. It has two residential apartments upstairs, space downstairs for two street-front businesses, some offices in the back and a warehouse on the backside.

The CBD shop Snake River Solace and a full-service salon called Image Designers are the current commercial occupants of the building.

The renovation included new plumbing, wiring, sheetrock, bathrooms and windows. Hansen also declined to talk about how much the he paid for the 928 N. Main St. building, but it was recently assessed at $229,506, according to Bannock County Assessor’s office data.

East Center Street has seen a resurgence of new development over the last few years. Local entrepreneur Ben Bosworth recently opened up the Ef.Fin Barbershop in the loft area above his vape and electronic cigarette store Outlaw Vapor located at 518 E. Center St.

Another Gate City entrepreneur, Matt Spencer, completely renovated the Office Bar & Grill at 251 E. Center St. after he acquired it in 2017. He also converted the former Shanghai Chinese Food restaurant at 247 E. Center St. into the location for his tattoo shop, Gypsy Tattoo Co. after vacating the space in Bosworth’s 518 E. Center St. that now houses the barbershop.

Asked about the many developments in Downtown Pocatello, specifically the changes to East Center Street, Hansen said he was beyond excited to see what the future holds for the area.

“I absolutely love it,” Hansen said about the Downtown Pocatello developments. “I think it’s great that people are starting to invest money into their businesses in Downtown Pocatello. That is the only way to revitalize these areas is to put money into them.”