Lynchburg Business

Retail Revitalized: New Spaces in Not-So-New Places

Issue: August 2010 by Mitchell Malcheff in Inside The Magazine, Retail

Take care if you happen to be walking around downtown anytime soon, you may just get a stray piece of sawdust in your eye from one of the many renovation projects going on. Many current renovators are doing their best to stay true to the original historical architecture while making allowances for modern conveniences.

Don Pendleton of Consensus Real Estate Services is usually on the other side of renovation projects as a real estate broker. He recently tackled a project of his own on Commerce Street. Pendleton has already finished restoring part of 1213, 1215, and 1217 Commerce Street, which housed a plumbing company. The sprawling space is already home to Consensus’ offices, while the two commercial spaces on street level are very close to completion. While talks are still underway, when finished, Pendleton says they will likely be occupied by a photography studio and a café of sorts. Pendleton is also renovating a three-level, 3,000 square foot section of the building that will become his personal residence.

“I can walk to most of the things that I used to drive to,” Pendleton said of his move to downtown.

Pendleton was also attracted by the uniqueness of the space, which he says is smaller than most of the other properties that he is familiar with.

“It changes the character of the job you can do. This property sits on its own lot, it is one residential unit and it has off-street parking. You can’t find that anywhere else downtown,” Pendleton said.

Pendleton has worked hard to stay true to the original architecture, maintaining the old elevator shaft and dumbwaiter and conducting photographic research. Before he is done, all the floorboards, which have 100 years worth of dust accumulated on them, will be removed and refinished. Pendleton also took the original doors and windows from the street-level entrance and installed them in Consensus’ conference room.

Along the way, he took advantage of historic tax credits to help offset the cost of renovation. The credits allow a renovator to recoup up to 45 percent of their cost. Ralph “Chopper” Wilson is also using historic tax credits on his newest effort. Wilson is renovating the former Waterfalls building on Main Street and says the project will be complete by the end of 2010. Three retail spaces will be on the ground level, one of which will be occupied by Taste Selects. Six residential spaces will be on the upper floor—three two-bedroom lofts and three one-bedroom lofts.

“Naturally, I didn’t really think next door,” Wilson said of renovating right next to his last project, the Parlor Lofts. “But the opportunity was there.”

Wilson is also carving out a new subterranean space behind the building—an underground area which will play host to a bar as well as space for both offices and retail by the end of the year.

But Wilson’s is not the only Main Street project underway. Urs Gabanthuler, who owns the Main Street Eatery at 907 Main Street, is renovating 1107 Main Street. Four apartments, one commercial space and a small café owned by Gabanthuler will eventually call it home. Gabanthuler, who moved his restaurant downtown from Boonsboro in 1997, said he faced skepticism when he originally moved onto Main.

“Nobody believed me, now they do,” said Gabanthuler of his belief that downtown could be a viable place to locate a restaurant. “People were patting me on the back, saying nobody made it downtown.”

Unlike his counterparts in Pendleton, Wilson and Gabanthuler, Kurt Schulz is a relative newbie to downtown renovation. The former Sweet Briar professor has already finished a 6,600 square foot project at 815 Church Street that Adam Barnes, a photographer, Scott Hengerer, a financial advisor, and Mark Arthur, an attorney, set up business in. Two residential spaces, which are also filled, are at 815. Now, Schulz is hard at work on another restoration project at 802 Court, where he envisions an attorney’s office would fit nicely along with a residential space in the 4,400 square foot building. What was originally a hobby has become a passion for Schulz.

“Over the course of renovating 815 Church Street, I fell in love with the property –I spent almost a year on the renovation myself, hired contractors and love the final product,” Schulz said. “Then, last summer I was looking around to do it again as a long-term investment. I do not condone, nor am I willing to participate in, ‘flipping properties.’”

Schulz, like many other downtown renovators, was adamant that in order to do a historic renovation correctly, an investor must think long-term. An emphasis on the long-term is built into the use of historic tax credits, which mandate that a building’s owner may not sell the building for five years after the renovation is complete. An example of this five-year waiting period is the Riverviews Artspaces, which only recently became available for purchase rather than rent.

Whether it’s a restaurant, a loft or an underground bar, a number of renovators are resculpting the downtown area and carving out new spaces for retailers and businesses alike. But with their emphasis on the historical nature of many of the buildings, it looks like some things are going to change by staying the same.