T.A. Work Building set to reopen nine years after ruinous fire.

With sidewalk dining and new restaurants springing up over the past few years, the transformation of Alvarado Street in Monterey into a destination for tourists and locals alike has become a source of pride for the city. Yet a large hole remained nearly a decade after a fire torched the century-old T.A. Work Building in 2007. Now a resurrected building of the same name is poised to be fully operational by the end of the year.

“We have really high hopes for the building,” says Jerry Anderson, property manager for the Work family, which owns numerous properties in Monterey. “It’s going to have a significant and positive impact on upper Alvarado. It’s going to be a big part of continued revitalization of that area.”

Construction started in February 2015, eight years after the fire. Delays came from the Great Recession and disputes among Work family heirs. Now the 30,000-plus-square-foot building will host three storefronts on Alvarado Street, as well as one on Tyler Street. The building also has 21 market-rate apartments on upper floors; tenants are already living in eight.

Two of the commercial spaces on Alvarado are slated to become a specialty foods business and a boutique, Anderson says, but he declined to give further details. The new building is expected to be fully completed by August, with businesses moving in this fall.

“That was one of the darkest moments for us in Monterey.”

On Feb. 7, 2007, heat from a lightbulb in a Quiznos sandwich shop caused paper cups to ignite. The fire engulfed the entire building, destroying more than 20 businesses in the process. The blaze acted as a local harbinger to the national economic downturn, which stifled business development locally, and in cities across the country.

Since then, a lot has changed. With diners regularly filling sidewalk seating at restaurants like Cibo Ristorante Italiano, Caffe Trieste and Alvarado Street Brewery, and other eateries like Poke Lab and the forthcoming Alvarado Ramen are doing local takes on fast casual, the mood in downtown Monterey is far different than it was at the time of the fire.

“That was one of the darkest moments for us in Monterey,” Assistant City Manager Hans Uslar says of the period after the fire.

From that low point, the City Council and city staff developed the downtown specific plan to create a clear blueprint for renewal. The fruits of that plan are now being seen.

“With the downtown plan, there’s no second guessing,” Uslar says. “The guidelines make it very easy for property owners to invest in Monterey.”