New plans announced for long-vacant downtown building pending tax credits
LANCASTER − A long-vacant downtown building may get new life pending state tax credits.
Urban Restorations is in contract with Essex building owner Kevin Stalter to buy the approximate 138,000 square-foot building at the corner of North Columbus and Mulberry Streets for about $900,000. Urban Restorations president Bob Schilling said it would cost about $20 million to renovate the building for about 60 apartments on the second and third floors and retail space on the first floor.
The housing units would also include some Airbnb units, Schilling said.
Mayor David Scheffler said the plan also calls for adding 100 parking spaces. He said some nearby buildings past their useful life may be demolished for parking.
Schilling is awaiting about $3 million on state tax credits by the end of the month. If he gets the credits, work could start sometime after the first of the year. He said it should take about 24 months to complete the renovation on the building that dates to between 1900 and 1910 when it was originally the Fairfield Shoe Company.
Should the company not get the tax credits, Schilling said he could reapply for them. He said he's already been granted a federal tax credit of 20% of the renovation cost.
"We're attracted by the building itself because that's what we do," Schilling said. "We do historic renovations. We bought kind of a sister building in Columbus and renovated it. Then, of course, the overall beauty of Lancaster itself. It's just a beautiful location right there in the hills. It's a place we've been going to for years as a family, so there's just a lot of good memories. It's really a nice community."
The last occupant of the Essex building was Fairfield Industries, then a division of the Fairfield County Board of Developmental Disabilities. It moved out of the building in 2005.
Schilling and Destination Downtown Lancaster Executive Director Amanda Everitt both said opening the building back up would extend the downtown area to that part of Columbus Street.
Schilling said the project would be difficult, but that his company is used to doing projects others turn down.
"I think two previous developers looked at this and ended up walking away from it for whatever reason, I'm not sure," Schilling said. "We've been working on this a year plus, and we're not there yet. We're hoping to get there shortly, though."
Everitt said the Essex is "incredibly important piece of our history."
"We have an abnormally small downtown for the size of our population because we've torn so many buildings down over the last 100 years," she said. "So a historic building of that size in incredibly important to preserve and restore because when they're gone, they're gone."
Scheffler said housing is one of the city's biggest issues.
"This would go a long way toward helping that," he said. "And also help continue the development of downtown."
jbarron@gannett.com
740-681-4340
Twitter: @JeffDBarron
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Plans announced for long-vacant downtown building pending tax credits
