POCATELLO — The more than 4,000 hours local resident Craig Yadon personally spent renovating what is now known as the Purpose Center in Historic Downtown Pocatello didn’t go unnoticed.
Yadon will soon be presented with the 2023 Orchid Award from Preservation Idaho, which is given for those who spearhead “projects that have demonstrated outstanding adherence to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards in preservation, restoration, renovation or adaptive reuse,” according to a news release from Preservation Idaho.
“I’m thankful and appreciative that someone took notice of all the details that we were trying to follow throughout the project,” Yadon said. “Historic preservation groups have all of these requirements that are seemingly endless, down to the trim of the windows, which is kind of minutiae, but to have someone at the end say that we did it the right way, that’s a great feeling.”
Yadon and his wife, Mariya, will travel to Boise for the award banquet held at the Treasure Valley Institute for Children’s Arts, 1406 Eastman St.
And while he’s honored to have been recognized, Yadon’s work transforming the former Petersen’s Building into the Purpose Center is just the first in what he expects to be several projects that he hopes will help diversify the downtown area.
Yadon spent about 15 months getting the architectural plans completed for the Purpose Center, crediting the Pocatello company Myers Anderson Architects for doing a tremendous job on the design.
“Kudos to them,” he said. “They put together such an amazing plan, all we had to do was follow it.”
Then Yadon spent about another 18 months doing the hands-on work. Working full time on the endeavor, Yadon spent over 4,000 hours on the renovation.
Located at 224 N. Main St. in Pocatello, the Purpose Center now houses a tea house called Purpose Tea on the main floor that also boasts about 6,000 square feet of usable event space.
The Purpose Center’s third and fourth floors have open floor plans, each with about 5,000 square feet of usable space that Yadon plans to dedicate for premier office space. Anyone interested in touring the available space can contact Yadon directly through his business Yadon Properties at yadonprop@gmail.com or via phone at 208-681-6028.
The building’s fifth floor, which provides a bird’s-eye view of the restored neon Chief Theater sign on the other side of North Main Street, houses luxury vacation rental space. The floor is divided into two separate rentals, which Yadon said can be reserved independently or together for larger gatherings.
The space on the west side of the fifth floor features two bedrooms, a full kitchen, a bathroom, a living room area and laundry room. The east side space is much larger, with six bedrooms and a large gaming area complete with both a billiards table and foosball table. The eastern space also has a children’s playroom, a full kitchen with an island, bunk rooms for the grandchildren and a cozy fireplace.
The original Petersen’s Building was built in 1914 and was constructed of cream-colored brick. Originally owned by T.C. Martin, the building housed Petersen’s Furniture from 1921 to the late 1990s and then Scott’s Ski and Sports until 2010. Yadon acquired the building in 2019.
When asked why he decided to invest in Historic Downtown Pocatello, Yadon said it was primarily because he wanted to give back to a community that he was able to live in and find success of his own, having previously sold a construction company of his to pave the way for the Purpose Center and other ventures.
“I was just really successful on the construction side, but not because I was this brilliant guy,” he said. “I ended up owning the company and it was just successful. I looked at my success and how blessed and fortunate I was and just felt like it was a duty almost to give back to the community because I was just an average guy who got this great opportunity. Being able to stay right here and hopefully spark others to do something similar in our downtown was important to me.”
Restoring the former Petersen’s Building appears to be just the first of several projects on the horizon for the Yadon family, who in recent months has obtained the two buildings directly adjacent to the Purpose Center.
The building located west of the Purpose Center formerly housed Main Steam Coffee and Desserts and the building directly to the east currently houses Star Route Brewery, which will be relocating in the near future.
While Yadon has already acquired the two buildings, he is still in the preliminary planning process when it comes to determining what new businesses will call those places home. He is wrestling with a few ideas so far, which have included a bookstore, a breakfast and brunch diner, and, among others, a candy store.
“With the existing entities in downtown Pocatello, there is a certain demographic that is quite prevalent in the area,” Yadon said. “It’s not my intention to prevent or eliminate that demographic from the downtown area but rather add to it, bolster it and improve upon it.”
Yadon continued, “We don’t really get a lot of the folks living on the East bench or the Satterfield area coming downtown on a regular basis with their families. Lookout Point helps a ton but my hope is to have some businesses that bring a different demographic than those that are already coming for the existing businesses in downtown Pocatello.”
Yadon doesn’t have a concrete timeline for his new ventures and is operating with an approach that is more methodical, he said.
“We just want the downtown area to be truly looked at as a community asset,” he said. “Not just for some, but for everyone.”