Marx plans to develop building on northwest corner of 30th and Broadway similar to building across street

QUINCY — Less than two years after starting work on building a 6,000-square-foot retail building on the northeast corner of 30^th and Broadway, Marx Commercial Properties and Development Company is going to develop a similar facility across the street.

Demolition work began Thursday on the former VIP Lounge at 2929 Broadway. Tory Kaufmann, a Marx Commercial Properties and Development Company spokesperson, said plans call for a building that will be slightly less than 5,000 square feet to go in that location. 

The building on the northeast corner of the intersection has a Verizon store, a Pancheros restaurant and room for one more tenant. That building faces Broadway, but the new development on the northwest corner will face east toward 30^th Street.

“The lot is longer from north to south than it is from east to west,” Kaufmann said. “To get within the concept of the size of the building, the parking lot had to face east.”

Kaufmann said the new building could be designed as another mini strip center accommodating three tenants, or it could be for just one tenant. It also could be for a retail business or office space.

“We really don’t have anybody signed up yet,” he said. “Just owning that northwest corner (of the intersection) and then having the nice building on the other side of the street, we just wanted to kind of round out that intersection.”

No start date has been set, but Kaufmann expects construction to begin within the next two months. 

“I think location does help us,” he said. “If you can utilize the property you already have, like we did there (on the northeast corner of) 30th and Broadway and the Planet Fitness space (in the former County Market building). That seems to be a really good concept, especially when you have Broadway properties. You see that in big cities. They’ll have a grocery store out back and they put strip centers out front. Everybody wins because we’re bringing more people into the center.”

The building on the northwest corner of 30^th and Broadway has had many uses over the years. Before it was VIP Lounge, it was home for Midwest Title Loans, which provided cash loans on car titles. It also was the site of a car dealership and an auto glass business. However, it may be best remembered as a gas station. 

Ken Hultz, 3^rd Ward alderman, said it was a Standard Oil gas station for several years before it became an Amoco.