Right across Allen Street from the Bird Cage Theatre stand two historical buildings, attached to each other, forming a section of the facade on the north side of the thoroughfare between Fifth and Sixth streets.

These buildings are some of the few original structures left in Tombstone, the walls dating back to the 1880s when the city was founded. Now emptiness is all that is enclosed within these antique walls.

“I’m going to create a brand new building,” said Alfred Telles, the owner and renovator of the properties. “It’ll just be inside the same walls.”

“I inherited the properties, so I thought I would invest in them. Might as well give them a bit of a rejuvenation,” Telles said.

“I’m just bringing the building up to code right now,” he said. “New plumbing with nice bathrooms and new flooring—only the walls will stay.”

There are no plans of businesses moving into these walls as of yet, but having a new interior within the vintage building will be attractive to perspective business owners, Telles said.

The project, funded out of Telles’ pocket, will be complete in about six months, he said. The buildings have been gutted and it’s just a matter of filling them back up.

Telles, a resident of Willcox, has done other remodel jobs in southern Arizona. While he isn’t sure when the businesses will come, he said his other projects usually become occupied within three to six months after completion.

“You can never know how long it will take,” he said, “but these buildings are too beautiful to sit vacant for long.”

A similar reinvestment project in the Tombstone area opened one year ago. This business venture, located two miles outside town, down a dirt road across from the Schieffelin monument, is a western-themed resort. The Apache Spirit Ranch is known for its views, themed rooms and isolation—allowing the guests to feel as if they were living in the 1880s.

The CEO of the resort, Peter Stenger, is from Germany. He became fascinated with the appeal of the Wild West and wanted to build something straight out of the books he read, said Daniela Garavito, the ranch’s director of marketing and sales.

“We’ve been doing all right. It’s our first year, so it’s not great, but we’re getting there,” she said. “We’re all learning as we go, but we’ll be staying here.”

Advertisement in Europe is strong due to the ties Stenger has to Germany. “About 20 of the investors are German, too,” Garavito said. “There’s a lot of advertisements in newspapers and magazines over there.”

“We’re attracting a lot of guests from Germany and the Netherlands,” she said. “We’re trying to get more people stateside—trying to get our name out more.”

“Both the ranch and the town benefit from each other,” Garavito said. “We help Tombstone attract international guests and they give us more local exposure.”

This influence in Tombstone is evident—signs around town, such as one in the Wyatt Earp Theater, proclaim the staff’s ability to speak German.

The ranch sits on more than 270 acres of secluded land and offers guests meals, entertainment and horseback rides. Operators host events, such as a recent movie screening attended by about 200 people, and plan to host more in the future, Garavito said.

“We’re improving our services by our guests feedback,” Garavito said. “I’d say 99 percent of them say it’s beyond outstanding. Some have even said it’s the best vacation they’ve ever had.”

Since it is the resort’s first year in business, it is not unreasonable for it to not yet be paying for itself. Even when it does reach that point, Garavito said she doesn’t think it will expand above its 17 rooms onto the rest of its land.

“A big part of the ranch is its views, so I can’t imagine making it big and blocking them out,” she said. “We do want to add more horses, though.”