Jefferson House, a moniker borrowed from the street it will soon sit along, is a collaboration between Kell Duncan and Stephen Allen of The Churchill in downtown Phoenix and Lance and Gavin Linderman of Banquet LLC, the hospitality brand behind downtown Peoria’s popular coffee shop, Driftwood Coffee Co. and the Glendale bar, Easy Tiger.
“I’m excited to partner with Lance and Gavin because of all the stuff they’ve done with Driftwood,” says Churchill owner, Kell Duncan.
The project is moving forward, and moving fast, thanks to a recent retail and restaurant development push spearheaded by Peoria Mayor Jason Beck and the Peoria City Council. The property where Jefferson House will reside is city-owned and was initially acquired by the city as a key part of its downtown Peoria revitalization vision.
“Downtown Peoria is in a growth phase,” says Allen, director of operations at The Churchill.
Duncan, Allen and the Linderman's began planning for Jefferson House just a few months ago.
“We got together and started to conceptualize how to bring this vision to fruition,” Allen says.
Lance and Gavin Linderman are behind Old Town Peoria's modern coffee shop, Driftwood Coffee. They have partnered with The Churchill's team to open Jefferson House.
Driftwood Coffee
What to expect at Jefferson House
The blueprints for Jefferson House mirror those of its downtown Phoenix counterpart, The Churchill, named for the Evans Churchill neighborhood where it resides. The new concept will feature similar core characteristics such as a curated lineup of local restaurants and independently-owned small businesses. There will also be a roomy courtyard primed for community-centered activations like live music performances, events and artisan popups akin to The Churchill’s Sidewalk Saturday markets.
Also like The Churchill, Jefferson House will be constructed from repurposed shipping containers, a detail Allen considers “a good effort for adaptive reuse.” Fittingly so, too. The area’s history is rooted in the railway.
The Peoria train depot on 83rd Avenue was erected along a spur line of the Sante Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway Co. in 1895 — a year before Peoria was founded.
The depot connected Phoenix to Prescott and enabled local farmers and ranchers to move crops and cattle as far as Atchison, Kansas. It was decommissioned in 1972. Today, it sits at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale.
So building the new community space out of shipping containers is "kind of a nice coincidental homage to the city’s history,” Allen says.
At The Churchill, local vendors set up their tables outside for Sidewalk Saturday, a weekend artisan market. Plans are in the works for similar events at Jefferson House.
Lauren Topor/Good Karma Photo
Search for tenants is underway
One way Jefferson House will differ from The Churchill is in size. Overall, the new concept will be much bigger. Its footprint is about a third larger than The Churchill’s 14,000-square foot space, which currently houses 10 local businesses; The Brill Line, Infruition, So Far So Good, Loco Style Grindz, Freak Brothers, Scookie Bar, Stoop Kid, Neighbor Market, State Forty Eight and Cayla Gray. A larger footprint means “there will definitely be more tenants,” according to Duncan. And the search for those businesses is underway. The new tenants just have to be able to fit inside of a shipping container. Duncan encourages interested business owners to reach out online.
“I love downtown Phoenix and The Churchill, it’s really a space to create opportunities for small local businesses,” Duncan says. “I’m hoping this will have that effect.”
In addition to a deeper roster of restaurants and retailers, Duncan says he'd like to bring a mix of coworking and office spaces to Jefferson House. Original plans to incorporate bi-level office and coworking spaces at The Churchill fizzled out due to construction and budget constraints. Duncan hopes this potential addition will be a bright spot at Jefferson House.
So is a Jefferson House housewarming party on the horizon? For now, the project is moving on the city’s expedited timeline.
“I have never had a process like this before, usually I’m going to the city and trying to get permits,” Duncan says. “They’re not taking their time.”
When asked about an opening date, Duncan replied, “ASAP.”
