Month: June 2025

Cameron Montemayor

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — Local realtors are envisioning a wide range of new possibilities for a pair of retooled Downtown buildings long known for food and recreational activities.

With two open house events over the last several months, including one last week that drew strong turnout, the former YMCA building at 315 S. 6th St. has seen a variety of high-priced improvements that realtors hope will attract further investment for the 1.4 acre property.

“We’ve had a dance studio look at it. We’ve had people interested in maybe volleyball. It could be retail. Anything’s possible. By the same token, it could still be light industrial,” said Laura Wyeth, realtor with the Wyeth Stover Team and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Stein & Summers Real Estate. “Our hope is every building we fill, it brings people Downtown.”

Since the building was closed in 2020, new owners have paid for all new HVAC, lighting and fire alarm systems, among other upgrades. One of the biggest renovations is the former pool area has been filled in and replaced with pickleball courts, a space that could easily be kept as is or repurposed.

While the building maintains a strong presence of well-kept athletic amenities that could make for a complex-like facility, including courts for basketball, racquetball and a workout room, fellow realtor Lynne Stover said the key is thinking outside the box to attract one or multiple suitors for opportunities, which could also include offices or light warehousing.

“It’s about 28,900 square feet. So it’s a large facility, but you could definitely subdivide areas,” Wyeth said. “It’s just getting people to see it not just as the old YMCA, but a large building in the heart of downtown revitalization with a lot of opportunity.”

Wyeth and Stover are hopeful the building could one day turn it into another anchor that drives people Downtown, similar to the success of the InspireU Children’s Discovery Museum in the Plymouth Building, a structure that sat vacant for three decades prior to its revitalization.

Another well known and longstanding space that held an open house last week was at the Brittain-Richardson building at 224 N. 4th Street, formerly the home of Boudreaux’s Louisiana Seafood and Steak, which relocated Downtown to 123 S 6th St.

The building includes 7,000 square feet of space for lease that could accommodate another non-chain restaurant, in addition to a 5th floor that could be used as an event space.

“We need a great steakhouse or great Italian, or that space could be something totally different,â€Â Wyeth said.

Realtors are also ramping up marketing for centrally-located Downtown space at 706 Felix St. which will see Legal Aid of Western Missouri depart in the near future.

“(It) also goes into 109 S. 7th St. Right now it’s currently offices, but there’s an upstairs that has not been finished. It could be great loft apartments,” Stover said. “We had somebody look at it for possible shared office space. So there’s all kinds of opportunities for that too. And that building looks out onto Felix Street Square.”

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Charles Christian

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — A local deli, that is over a century old, is making some upgrades to its facility and music.

Magoon’s Famous Delicatessen in St. Joseph is a local fixture, having been part of the landscape of Downtown St. Joseph for 107 years this month.

Barry Woodhull, who has owned Magoon’s for 20 years, said he is taking the opportunity this summer to make some changes to keep the place, that was part of his own childhood, moving forward.

“My father brought me here back in the ’70s,” Woodhull said. “I was a big fan of the whole thing, and back then they had bagels and lox — a full menu.”

Woodhull kept the full menu handed down from the Magoon family and added a full bar. He also began hosting musicians for jam nights and local concerts.

In recent years, events like the COVID-19 pandemic affected the ability of venues like Magoon’s to bring in live music. Even so, the customer base of regulars and newcomers continued to grow, both for the food and for the fellowship, a regular patron said.

“I am a retired person, a widower, but I know when I come here, I’ll have a good beer and get to talk to good folks here,” said Rick, a regular patron.

It is that kind of customer loyalty that continued to evoke interest from local musicians like Chris Jamison, age 64, who also had family-related memories of Magoon’s.

“My grandfather, who was a local boxer, was really good friends with the Magoons,” Jamison said. “My dad came here when I was a little kid and I followed my grandfather around when I was a kid too.”

Jamison has helped restart the monthly ‘Electric Jam’ on the second Wednesday of each month at Magoon’s.

“It’s a time where musicians from all kinds of different backgrounds come together and just play music together,” Jamison said. “There just aren’t many places like that anymore, where musicians can come together and collaborate, and I wanted to see Magoon’s do that again, like they did before COVID.”

Magoon’s has also added an ‘Acoustic Jam’ night, during the first and third Wednesdays of the month, where musicians gather on the stage and play a variety of songs from genres ranging from progressive rock to traditional country. The deli has a ‘Happy Hour’ concert during the week and bands from around the area perform every Friday and Saturday.

For Jamison, who has been a professional musician for over 30 years, adding more musical opportunities for musicians in the St. Joseph area is not just about music. He also sees it as a way to promote goodwill.

“I felt like there’s too much underlying divisiveness in society that’s tearing us apart,” Jamison said. “So, I see myself and this project as a kind of stealth activism.”

To find out more about upcoming concerts and jam sessions, visit Magoon’s Famous Delicatessen on Facebook.

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