Joshua Cowell, by all published accounts, was proud of what he built kitty-corner from his home in 1913.

It was the grandest building in Manteca of its day.

Civic boosters were convinced it would create a calling card, if you will, for the growing community.

Fast forward 113 years later.

The leaders today of the community that Cowell is credited with founding doubled down Tuesday night on his grand vision that led to his building the iconic IOOF Hall on the northwest corner of Yosemite Avenue and Main Street.

The City Council is buying the IOOF Hall for $1.2 million.

The intent is to repurpose it into a grand entry for downtown.

And, if all goes according to plan, the “transformation” of the IOOF Hall will set the stage for the next 100 years.

What that entails exactly has yet to be decided.

But one thing is for sure. In order to make it work, it will have to be “the gathering place” as the IOOF Hall was in its heyday.

You can get all of that from the dancing around during the public presentation of the $1.2 million purchase.

But the bottom line is obvious.

To make it work, it will require a restaurant(s) and/or entertainment venue.

“Unique” boutique shops are not going to draw the throngs.

Neither is space repurposed as insurance offices.

The city is basically getting into the restaurant business.

Ideally, they will be able to do it with a private sector partner from the get-go.

The other option, of course, is the city does more of the heavy lifting.

All of this sounds nebulous and risky.

But here is the problem.

Some of the city’s harshest critics want the city to do more to bring restaurants that they will partake in to Manteca.

They are also the same people who tend to bellyache that downtown supposedly isn’t worth the time of the day which is clearly contrary to reality.

And they are the same people who blame the city for not somehow remaking downtown.

That is not to say downtown is 100 percent vibrant and thriving.

But they are a lot of places that are doing fairly well.

There are places that have been in business for decades. There are those that have just recently opened and are slowly but surely building a loyal following. And there are places that have bitten the dirt fairly quickly such as the art gallery.

But then again downtown was home to German Glas Werks, an honest-to-goodness niche business heavily dependent on art to succeed, for close to three decades.

Business plans that resonate with the market are critical.

And let’s be clear, businesses fail all the time.

Circuit City closed two years after opening in Manteca in 2008. The space it was the first to occupy in the Stadium Retail Center that was subsequently filled by JoAnn Fabrics is now being filled by Burlington. JoAnn Fabrics also filed for bankruptcy.

On the flip side, a dying downtown doesn’t have five traditional financial institutions as Manteca does.

It is also clear the city is taking a risk.

But you could argue the city would be taking a bigger risk by doing nothing.

Downtown Manteca isn’t exactly rampant with landlords with the financial stomach, or perhaps even the financial wherewithal, to invest the kind of money needed to transform buildings into other uses.

That is not a slam. Far from it.

It is reality.

Synergy carries a lot of weight.

Manteca, by buying a high-profile iconic building that offers great potential to being transformed with preserving and enhancing its unique architecture, can essentially assure it won’t sit empty.

They can also assure the capital, to a large degree, to make it work is available.

The goal of course is one or two or more catalyst transformation projects will do the trick to start luring private investment on a grander scale downtown.

The five-story senior housing with retail on the bottom floor envisioned for an empty corner two blocks to the west is another that could trigger new construction with retail space on the ground and housing above.

The risk is reduced somewhat by the city’s growth.

The city has been adding an annual average of 2,000 new consumers for the last 10 years. And many of the new home buyers are better positioned to engage in more robust discretionary spending that is needed to make a downtown transformation work.

None of this is to say Manteca shouldn’t be pursuing an active role in the future of downtown by buying and renovating the IOOF Hall as well as securing preferred tenants.

Instead, it is to point out how Manteca’s leadership got to where they are today.

One other thing needs to be pointed out.

The Manteca played a pivotal role 27 years ago in the transformation of the burned shell of the El Rey Theatre that caught fire Aug. 6. 1975 after a screening of “The Towering Inferno.”

The city, through the now-defunct redevelopment agency, made a $250,000 forgivable loan that was part of creating the El Rey’s second act — Kelly Brothers Brewing Co. & Brickyard Oven Restaurant.

It served as a popular gathering place for more than a decade before the Great Recession caught up with it.

By then, the brewery had fulfilled its requirement of generating in $250,000 in sales tax to the city that offset the loan.

The work Kelly Brothers did set the stage for the El Rey’s third act that is thriving today, The Veranda Events Center.

The city’s assistance — thoroughly criticized at the time — avoided the property owner from repurposing the burned-out shell as a two-story office building.

That clearly isn’t what most people likely would have wanted to happen. It also wouldn’t have been good for downtown.

And that is the city’s bottom line for getting involved in the future of the IOOF Hall.

This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com