The Columbia Falls Mexican cuisine restaurant Vaqueros, is joining the groundswell of business revitalizations that have occurred on Nucleus Avenue within the past few years. The building is currently undergoing an external remodel.

“Nucleus has been changing for awhile now, and it’s time for something fresh,” said Fransisco Valera, owner of the restaurant since 2004. “Inside it’s kind of nice, I remodeled about three or four years ago, but people like tourists, they don’t know that, even though locals do. It’s time to change, refresh, you know.”

The plan, said Valera, is to re-stucco the entire building and to add a short roofline facade of Spanish tiles. The color, as of yet, is undetermined.

Valera has already submitted building plans and is in the back-and-forth process of getting a city building permit, he said.

The restaurant plans to remain open for the duration of the project, Valera noted.