A Bank Buys the Corner — and Newport's Frontage Keeps Climbing
The Security State Bank pays around $4,000 for the McMorran corner at Washington Avenue and Third, planning a brick building and proving that inside business property here only goes up.
The Security State Bank has purchased the A. W. McMorran business property on the northeast corner of Washington avenue and Third street. This is a choice location and one of the most valuable corners in town.
The price reported is around $4,000. Allowing a reasonable deduction for the value of the building, the price paid is about $25 per front foot higher than was paid two years ago for the ground now occupied by Caldwell and Harris.
This is the first important transfer of inside frontage for several months, not because of a lack of buyers, but because the owners would not sell. There are few towns where values in business property have increased as steadily as in Newport. It is indicative of the real worth and revenue earning power of inside property.
While no definite plans have been given out as to the improvement of the property, it is understood that the frame building will be moved to make place for a fine brick structure that will be a credit to our town.
“"There are few towns where values in business property have increased as steadily as in Newport."”
A bank paying a premium for a downtown corner and vowing to replace a frame building with brick was Newport betting on itself in 1910. The same corner-frontage calculus — and the same booster faith that values 'only go up' — drives small-town commercial real estate today.
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