There's a building on the corner of Fourth Avenue and C Street in downtown Anchorage that has been many things over the years: a Wendy’s, a few different hotels, and a shelter for those experiencing homelessness. And after a $50 million revamp, it’s now The Wildbirch Hotel.
The three-story hotel has murals spanning multiple floors, with brightly painted taxidermy salmon, all by local artists. There’s also a restaurant and coffee shop connected to the 252-room hotel, and soon a brewery will be added.
The east side of downtown has been “neglected” for many years, said former U.S. senator Mark Begich, who’s developing the building under his firm MASH LLC. The overhaul is an effort to brighten the area’s atmosphere, he said.
“We're trying to push this envelope a little bit to get more people to think about downtown a little broader than just three blocks on Fourth or a couple blocks on Fifth, that it's a much larger component,” he said. “This is what we would consider a significant anchor to kind of revitalize Downtown and show people that you can make these investments and change the dynamics of what it can be and what it is today.”
According to a survey from the Anchorage Community Development Authority that gathered input from nearly 750 residents, half said they don’t frequent Downtown as much as they used to because of public safety concerns and a perception that its grown stagnant. But respondents said they still love attending community events and concerts and using nearby trails.
Begich’s business partner, Sheldon Fisher, was revenue commissioner during Gov. Bill Walker’s administration. He said he hopes this investment attracts more upgrades to the area.
“As we make investments, it gives license for everybody east and west of us to make investments and have confidence that they'll prosper,” Fisher said.
The number of hotel rooms in the state’s largest city hasn’t changed much over the last decade, according to Visit Anchorage. A few new hotels have opened in Midtown, while others have been repurposed for other uses, like low-income housing.
Not far from the Wildbirch, there are plans to build an RV resort. It’ll have over 100 full-service hookups, a playground, amphitheater, several pickleball courts and more than a dozen long-term housing units.
MASH is also overhauling the 4th Avenue Marketplace across the street from the Wildbirch. Construction on the large blue building will start in the fall and is expected to be completed in two years.
It’ll have a completely different look, Fisher said, comparing the plans to a popular attraction in downtown Seattle.
“The third floor of the building will be condominiums. And then the second floor will be kind of an open market concept you see like Pike's Place, and then the first floor will be predominantly this grocery store, and then some additional retail space,” he said.
As the thinking goes, a revitalized downtown could also appeal to young people who may want to stay but leave for thriving cities in the Lower 48. Anchorage’s working age population declined for the 11th consecutive year in 2024.
A revitalized Downtown is one that could reverse that trend, said Jenna Wright, CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corp.
“One of the primary metrics that I would look at for revitalization is that we're growing," Wright said in a December interview. "So we're attracting people. We're attracting private investment from inside the state as well as outside of the state, and we essentially have a fresh coat of paint, and everywhere you look you say, ‘This is a beautiful city.'"
The corporation backed a 3% sales tax that would’ve provided property tax relief and public projects, but the Anchorage Assembly postponed the proposal indefinitely.
Many other cities are trying to revitalize, some successfully, including Cincinnati, Ohio and Boise, Idaho.
The University of Alaska Center for Economic Development's executive director, Jared Reynolds, has worked on such projects in New England, where he said improving walkability was key to bringing more people to the city's core. He said there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to revitalizing a downtown, but there are common elements.
“There needs to be different ways to get downtown, whether that's car, bike, bus, walking,” he said. “It needs to look nice, be vibrant, public arts, small parks. And there needs to be a diversity of businesses, mixed use and ideally places to live downtown.”
Lively downtowns are attractive to tourists, but they’re also critical for residents, Reynolds said. There’s a nationwide shift toward mixed-use downtowns, he said, where people can live, work and shop in one place.
But when it comes to revitalizing downtown Anchorage, the city faces unique challenges, like an intense tourism season and high construction costs, Reynolds said. Plus, the city’s sprawling landscape means business and entertainment is scattered across the municipality.
“That does create some challenges in creating that commercial core, where people go,” Reynolds said.
There are many ways to calculate how successful a revitalization project is, he said, like increased tax revenue or the number of jobs, and there are qualitative measures too: If residents find the area more enjoyable and feel safer, they’re likely to make it a more frequent part of their routine, Reynolds said.
"I think there's lots of ways to measure whether a development or redevelopment or revitalization is successful," he said, "depending on what the goals are."
