Waynestock was great, but it wasn’t all I took in this weekend. The first stop for me on first Friday was the Ely Building at 406 W. Church Avenue. It’s available, has been on the market for some time and really needs the right buyer to step in and give it a new purpose. It’s in excellent shape inside and out, so the only work that would need to be done would be to set the inside to whatever purposes the new owner had in mind.
As it stands, office space is provided on all floors and four bathrooms are sprinkled throughout. The space is in such good shape, it could be utilized this way, or . . . I can easily imagine living on the third floor which features gorgeous doors, multiple fireplaces, great hardwood and 2,000 square feet of living space. One side overlooks a beautiful shared courtyard.
The middle floor with its spacious lobby area is ready-made for an office spaces (not sure if Buddha is negotiable). Access is directly from W. Church Avenue and a large parking lot sits across the street, so parking would never be an issue for customers. With a little renovation, it could also be a retail space, but office space seems more likely. Just as the other floors, available space is just over 2,000 square feet.
The bottom space is also interesting. With the same amount of square footage, I’d likely consider remaking the space into a residential rental unit. Two exterior entrances to this level as well as numerous windows make certain it does not feel like a basement. Just the access to the shard courtyard alone would make this urban space very appealing. So does it have your name on it? Follow the link above for a showing. (And tell them Urban Guy sent you.)
After leaving the Ely Building I walked (quickly – it was brutal out) to Market Square to check out the Preservation Pub annex or Scruffy City Hall as I think they intended to call it. The focus for the night included art and a DJ, so I didn’t hear a live show there, but I got a good view of the space as I caught it early and I really liked it. Somehow it has the coziness of a basement, though it isn’t. I’ll look forward to hearing some live music there down the line.
Several artists’ work lined the walls ranging from oils to photography and from abstract to realistic. I enjoyed talking to Patrick Johnson who’s excellent downtown photography covered one section. I particularly liked artist Chris Cornett’s abstract expressionist paintings, though I’m a bit lost reading his description of what he’s trying to do. Maybe you can put into English in a comment for me.
From there I checked out a couple of new businesses, which we’ll look at in the next couple of days, along with some other business news that has filtered out this week.
