Deadline passes to save historic Arizona State Fair building

• Saturday is the deadline for a solution by preservationists to save a State Fair building
• Preservationists have no firm solution for rehabilitating the historic WPA building
• Fair officials said they will start looking at other uses for the space occupied by the building

Time is up, at least officially.

Saturday marks the yearlong deadline for a group of historic preservationists to raise money to restore the dilapidated 1938 WPA Administration Building at the Arizona State Fairgrounds — or have it face demolition.

The money appears to have come up far short, but what happens next is up in the air.

Kristi Walsh, assistant executive director of the State Fair, said the Arizona Exposition and State Fair Board stands by its firm Aug. 1 deadline, and internal discussions will resume as to how they will use the building’s land. Previous plans called for razing the structure and paving the area for parking and vendor space.

But the building still stands, no wrecking balls yet in sight. And preservationists still are hoping to sell fair officials, who were antsy for a firm financial commitment, on a big-picture plan of using the building’s restoration to catalyze long-term revitalization to the area near 19th Avenue and McDowell Road.

Walsh said it’s not clear when demolition will occur. The State Fair is in “crunch time” right now, she added, and its main focus is planning for the annual extravaganza, which runs from mid-October to early November.

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What is clear is this: the State Fair wanted to hear a solution by Saturday.

“We were really hopeful their ideas would come to fruition before now,” Walsh said. “At this point once we hit the deadline, we feel we’ve met our commitment to the community. We’ll start reevaluating the best use of this space for our purpose as a business.”

Walsh did not commit to any further talks with preservationists, but rather characterized the situation as being in “a state of flux.”

The structure, also known as the State Fair Civic Building, was built to serve as the Arizona headquarters for President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Work Progress Administration, a federal agency that led several projects during the New Deal.

Fair officials estimated the price tag for restoring the building to be $1 million. Preservationists fighting to keep a piece of New Deal history argue that the total cost is more in the neighborhood of $400,000.

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In May, the group had raised about $8,000, well short of both figures. Group leaders would not say how much more, if any, they raised since then.

The group’s focus in recent months has been trying to find tenants who will financially commit to saving the structure, as well as four other historic buildings on the fairgrounds, said Jim McPherson, president of the Arizona Preservation Foundation.

They have not received any firm commitments from potential tenants. McPherson said there has been “continuing dialogue” with hopeful tenants, and said he hoped the group would get the opportunity to present their progress to fair officials next week.

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They believe their selling point is that restoring the building with the help of tenants would make it a city destination and spur more revitalization in the area.

“This part of town also has a great opportunity for revitalization,” McPherson said.

“What we’ve been discussing would be big. We’re looking at office space, classroom space, exhibit space and community space all together under one roof contributing to not only the fairgrounds, but the west side of Phoenix and Arizona in general.”

It might be too little, too late.

“While we’re excited about the idea, it’s still an idea,” Walsh said.

The passing deadline may mark the end of the impasse between fair officials and the preservation community — a battle that began last July when a county judge granted a last-minute request from preservation activists for a restraining order to block the State Fair’s demolition plans.

The State Fair planned on razing the structure, which has been deemed unusable, to turn a profit by creating more space for parking and vendors.

Since then, more than 15 city, neighborhood and political groups have joined the effort to save the building.