A chance stop at a Phoenix grocery store checked off an unexpected item on Ryan Tyner and Kim Moellenberndt’s shopping list. It was 2018, and the two were looking for their first house as a couple. They had just viewed a disappointing home in the city’s Loma Linda Park neighborhood and were feeling discouraged—and thirsty—when they drove past Corner Market, a small, freestanding convenience store. They went in for a drink, and then it hit them: “We both looked at each other and said, ‘This would be a cool house,’” remembers Ryan.

They admired the simplicity of the structure, a single-story brick-and-concrete-block box with a pair of large windows in front. Inside, Kim photographed the coolers and aisles of groceries as Ryan stood in line to pay for a bottle of water. When he got to the counter, the couple introduced themselves to the cashier—the owner, it turned out—and told him they were interested in buying the building.

“He said, ‘Great—I’ve been looking to sell it,’” says Ryan with a laugh.

The couple closed the deal with a handshake and reached out to Phoenix designer Joel Contreras, whose firm is known for renovations that blend historic and modern features. Contreras had already heard about the property from another potential buyer.

“You worry about a developer just scrapping it,” Contreras says, noting that, like a lot of historic buildings in Phoenix, the grocery store wasn’t protected. He was happy to take on the project after hearing that Ryan and Kim wanted the building preserved.

Contreras’s design called for stripping the structure to its shell—removing the dropped ceiling to expose 70-year-old wooden trusses, soda-blasting and sandblasting the walls to reveal the double layers of red bricks and gray concrete block, and grinding the concrete floors.

“I’m in love with the walls. Every time I go over to the house, I stand up close and just look. We’ll never find another place like this.”
—Joel Contreras, designer

Then, just as the rehab started, Ryan, a consultant who helped open luxury properties for a large hotel chain, lost a series of contracts as the result of a corporate restructuring, and the couple no longer had the funds necessary for the renovation. He and Kim, an automation engineer, had used their savings to buy the building outright because they couldn’t get a loan on the unusual property. “It felt like doomsday,” says Ryan.

As he was struggling with what to do, a buddy in construction asked Ryan to help manage the renovation of a historic building downtown. The income and hands-on experience gave him the boost he needed to move forward with the house and ultimately helm the crew. “We were hard-pressed to find a quality contractor who could understand and execute the vision,” Ryan explains. “So during the process, after some speed bumps, I took over as general contractor myself.” It was a move that paid off. People who saw the work started asking for his services, and Ryan launched his own firm, B. Wilde Builders.

After a year and a half of work, Ryan and Kim now call the minimalist space they dreamed of home. Light streams into the house from steel-framed windows, drawing the eye to the outdoor spaces (former parking lots) that they’ve begun to landscape. The sleek, open-plan kitchen and living area sits beneath the warm wooden trusses that march overhead and through the home office and bedroom at the back of the house. Contreras’s design preserves artifacts from the building’s commercial past, such as the outlines on the concrete floor where the store’s beer and beverage coolers stood for decades.

The couple love hearing neighbors’ stories about the building’s years as a local pool hall or the time someone bought a winning lottery ticket there. The renovators even enjoy random visits from people who think it’s still a store. “It’s rare to have a client for whom a property means so much. It’s also good for the neighborhood,” Contreras says of Ryan. “He saved the house, but in a weird way, the house saved him, too.”

Project Credits:

Renovation Architect: Joel Contreras Design and The Design Office

Construction: Ryan Tyner (Wilde Demolition)

Cabinetry Design: J Raymond Custom

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