Afton Town Administrator Violet Sanderson revealed that the town is moving ahead with plans to demolish the former Los Cabos building. “We have basically a pre-bid walkthrough for the Los Cabos building, having contractors come in and do a walk-through this month and hopefully respond to an RFP to start planning for the demolition of that building,” Sanderson said. “Our hope is that some of that can be done throughout the wintertime and early spring, so we can hopefully take advantage of having that pass-through open and available to be used next summer.”

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The project centers on establishing an open-air breezeway between Main Street and the parking area to the east. “Really what we’re going to be doing is creating a breezeway,” Sanderson explained. “In the planning documents so far, we’re going to keep our exterior walls to the north and the south, and then breaking down the rest of the building, doing some compaction, and then putting back some concrete with drainage capabilities in the area.”

Sanderson added that utilities are also being integrated into the early groundwork: “We’re going to have it plumbed and ready and available to have public restrooms in that area as well.” Overhead features are planned to enhance the space’s visual appeal: “We do have plans to have large timbers over the top so that way we can have some rafters, so to speak, for hanging lights and other things, just to make it a little bit more inviting in that space.”

Flexibility remains central to the town’s design vision. “The plan really is to have it be an area so we have some flexibility with how we can use it in the future,” Sanderson stated. “In the summertime, maybe we can set up some chairs and tables so people have a more inviting space to be able to eat if they’re grabbing something and enjoying the rest of downtown, and also just kind of a community area for people to gather when we do have some of our events downtown.”

Sanderson noted that the corridor represents “phase one” of downtown development goals detailed in the Main Street road map and the master plan for Star View Park. “We’re hopeful that this can bleed into the idea that we have better connectivity to our park system downtown as well as our public parking, so that way we can have less congestion with parking downtown,” she said, noting it will allow visitors to reach businesses without having to “walk all the way around on the side streets.”