Growing law firm moves to new offices on Capitol Street
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - As the centerpiece of what David Pray calls the city's "original strip mall," the building was the first home of Diamond Shoes and Garment Co. - later the Diamond Department Store.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - As the centerpiece of what David Pray calls the city's "original strip mall," the building was the first home of Diamond Shoes and Garment Co. - later the Diamond Department Store.
It was a Kresge dime store for most of its life, right next door to Woolworth's, its main competitor. In later years, it housed a Rite-Aid, then a stripped-down version of McCrory's.
Brian Castle of Prizm Painting applies a finishing touch behind the first-floor reception desk of Bailey & Glasser. Partner Ben Bailey picked out the painting, "June 2, 2007," which Lynn Boggess rendered in a single day along the Greenbrier River.
Now one of Capitol Street's finest commercial buildings is beginning a new life, like others on the block, as the headquarters of a law firm.
Ben Bailey, founding partner of Bailey & Glasser LLP, estimates he has spent about $4 million on what he calls an adaptive reuse of the three-story building at 209 Capitol St. He bought the property 2 1/2 years ago under a separate partnership. He and his employees moved in a week ago.
"It's been a lot of fun, and a big challenge, too," Bailey said recently. "I'm very happy with the way it's turning out. You look at the way something like this looked two years ago, and then see the way it's turned out - it's gratifying."
It almost didn't happen. In fact, a buyer was ready to tear down the building and put in a parking lot, just like the one next door on the site of the former Hotel Fleetwood.
Pat Brown, director of the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority, still regrets letting the Fleetwood go. It created a hole in the middle of the Capitol Street streetscape, and Brown made sure it didn't happen again.
"We got involved in the middle of the dispute between the tenant and the owner," Brown said. In a complicated case involving Rite-Aid, the Geary Trust (the owner) and Kresge, which held a long-term lease, Rite-Aid threatened to raze the building and erect a new one.
"At one point, Rite-Aid went down to the city and asked for a demolition permit," Brown said. "They said you can't get a permit without going through CURA." CURA refused. A lawsuit was filed.
After a judge ordered parties to negotiate, parking lot magnate Spyro Stanley reportedly offered to buy the building. The owners approached Brown and gave CURA first right to buy. The board agreed.
"We bought it to make sure we had control of it," Brown said. "We didn't want it torn down. We wanted it preserved."
In March 2006, Bailey agreed to do just that. He paid $525,000. "We sold it for $25,000 more than we paid for it," Brown said. "That was to cover our soft costs. Our goal was not to make money on it."
At the time, Bailey's assistant said they expected to spend another $1 million on renovations. They apparently underestimated, as Bailey now says the total cost will run about $4 million.
One of Bailey's first steps was to hire David Pray, a former builder, as project manager through his company PrayWorks. Pray worked with the architects, GBBN of Cincinnati, to carve up the old open retail floors into law offices.
Pray and Bailey led some recent visitors on a tour, through the high-ceilinged lobby with its pressed-tin ceiling panels, past the law firm's reception area into the first-floor offices.
"The front of the place is conference rooms," Bailey said. "We had only two in the old one. Scheduling was a problem. We have five here."
Toward the back, individual lawyers' offices line the outside walls, support-staff work stations cluster toward the middle. There's a kitchen/lunch room in a back corner and, nearby, a space ominously labeled "war room."
"It's exactly what it implies," Bailey said. "We do a lot of projects and need space to lay out paper. We have one on this floor and one in the basement for really huge projects." Two more are on the second floor, ready for battle.
Downstairs, thick stone walls surround areas for files, storage and mail processing, plus a small exercise facility with shower and rest rooms.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - As the centerpiece of what David Pray calls the city's "original strip mall," the building was the first home of Diamond Shoes and Garment Co. - later the Diamond Department Store.
It was a Kresge dime store for most of its life, right next door to Woolworth's, its main competitor. In later years, it housed a Rite-Aid, then a stripped-down version of McCrory's.
Now one of Capitol Street's finest commercial buildings is beginning a new life, like others on the block, as the headquarters of a law firm.
Ben Bailey, founding partner of Bailey & Glasser LLP, estimates he has spent about $4 million on what he calls an adaptive reuse of the three-story building at 209 Capitol St. He bought the property 2 1/2 years ago under a separate partnership. He and his employees moved in a week ago.
"It's been a lot of fun, and a big challenge, too," Bailey said recently. "I'm very happy with the way it's turning out. You look at the way something like this looked two years ago, and then see the way it's turned out - it's gratifying."
It almost didn't happen. In fact, a buyer was ready to tear down the building and put in a parking lot, just like the one next door on the site of the former Hotel Fleetwood.
Pat Brown, director of the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority, still regrets letting the Fleetwood go. It created a hole in the middle of the Capitol Street streetscape, and Brown made sure it didn't happen again.
"We got involved in the middle of the dispute between the tenant and the owner," Brown said. In a complicated case involving Rite-Aid, the Geary Trust (the owner) and Kresge, which held a long-term lease, Rite-Aid threatened to raze the building and erect a new one.
"At one point, Rite-Aid went down to the city and asked for a demolition permit," Brown said. "They said you can't get a permit without going through CURA." CURA refused. A lawsuit was filed.
After a judge ordered parties to negotiate, parking lot magnate Spyro Stanley reportedly offered to buy the building. The owners approached Brown and gave CURA first right to buy. The board agreed.
"We bought it to make sure we had control of it," Brown said. "We didn't want it torn down. We wanted it preserved."
In March 2006, Bailey agreed to do just that. He paid $525,000. "We sold it for $25,000 more than we paid for it," Brown said. "That was to cover our soft costs. Our goal was not to make money on it."
At the time, Bailey's assistant said they expected to spend another $1 million on renovations. They apparently underestimated, as Bailey now says the total cost will run about $4 million.
One of Bailey's first steps was to hire David Pray, a former builder, as project manager through his company PrayWorks. Pray worked with the architects, GBBN of Cincinnati, to carve up the old open retail floors into law offices.
Pray and Bailey led some recent visitors on a tour, through the high-ceilinged lobby with its pressed-tin ceiling panels, past the law firm's reception area into the first-floor offices.
"The front of the place is conference rooms," Bailey said. "We had only two in the old one. Scheduling was a problem. We have five here."
Toward the back, individual lawyers' offices line the outside walls, support-staff work stations cluster toward the middle. There's a kitchen/lunch room in a back corner and, nearby, a space ominously labeled "war room."
"It's exactly what it implies," Bailey said. "We do a lot of projects and need space to lay out paper. We have one on this floor and one in the basement for really huge projects." Two more are on the second floor, ready for battle.
Downstairs, thick stone walls surround areas for files, storage and mail processing, plus a small exercise facility with shower and rest rooms.
Everything gleams with fresh white paint, but Pray indicates a darker past. "This was wild," he said, hinting at the graffiti and critters he found lurking here, along with a kitchen abandoned from Kresge's lunch counter days.
The second floor looks much like the first - offices for lawyers and staff - while an unfinished third floor offers expansion room or maybe space to rent.
With an open floor plan, windows allow plenty of natural light into the middle of each floor. Most of those windows are new, Bailey said, and had to be approved by CURA and preservation officials.
"It was cavernous and dark. There were no windows on that [north] wall at all," he said. He estimates contractors punched two dozen openings in the wall once shared with the hotel, and more facing the alley in the back - about 30 in all.
It's a problem that plagues many downtown buildings, Pray said. "They're shotguns. They go from alley to street and have a nice front, but they're narrow."
Some would-be buyers rejected the building, fearing its wooden beams were too weak. "There was some corrective surgery that had to be performed," Pray said, "easily a couple hundred thousand dollars of surgery to the columns and floors."
Contractors stripped away old floors to the bare joists, nailed a new wood subfloor and poured an overlay.
Along the way, Pray traced the building's history through old photos and news stories, many from archives of the Gazette.
"It was built in 1892 and '93," he said. "This was the original strip mall, with three tenants. Woolworth's was next door and identical to this."
"It was built by Bill Geary," he said. "Geary was The Diamond, and owned the Daniel Boone Hotel. He was the original entrepreneur in Charleston.
"The main tenant was S.S. Kresge, which was the main competition for Woolworth's. Kresge was here from 1927 to 1983. There were two Kresges on the street. There was another where Ellen's is, and they both did well."
Bailey admits to some mixed feelings about leaving his current offices in the former Scott Drug Store building, just across the walkway from Ellen's. It was his first historic renovation project on Capitol Street.
"I'll miss the old one, of course," he said. But with 26 lawyers and 54 employees, his firm has outgrown that building; he rents space across the street. He's hung a for-sale sign in his old window.
Bailey and his partners - "three other guys in the firm" - expect to recoup about $1 million of their investment in the new building through state and federal tax credits. They're the key to the project, he says.
"The Historic Preservation Act is supposed to encourage these projects. Without it, this building would not have been saved."
He also credits the creation two years ago of the Downtown Historic District, which City Council members approved despite strong objections from at least one member. "It makes approval for projects like this easier," Bailey said. "If there hadn't been a historic district, this might not have happened.
City Council members honored Bailey and his firm for the project and its contribution to downtown.
"I like working on Capitol Street," he said. "It's a nice place to have a business."
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Posted By: bapaball(8:45am 10-13-2008)
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I'd love to move downtown to be closer to work, but due to our gov't's mishandling of the fiscal crisis, I sure can't affort (or get a loan for) a $200K loft!
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