From The Montgomery Advertiser
original story @
http://on.mgmadv.com/QmKyrL
Written by
Brad Harper
A $3.1 million renovation could start as early as next month at a long-dormant, 150-year-old former theater and department store in downtown Montgomery.
The three-story Webber Building next to the new City Hall will house first-floor retail, including Momma Goldberg’s Deli; second-floor business space, which will become the home of Payne Lee & Associates Architects; and third-floor apartments. There also are plans for more office space in the redesigned basement area.
It’s the result of a decade-long effort to save and renovate the building, where the music to “Dixie” was first written down, and where John Wilkes Booth and Sarah Bernhardt once performed. A unique $2.2 million federal loan was approved last week, sending the project into motion.
David Payne of Payne Lee & Associates Architects, which signed an agreement to purchase the building three years ago, said the plans have been in place while the company waited on that loan. Now that it’s been approved, Payne said the project could be finished within nine months and that Momma Goldberg’s hoped to be open before the Montgomery Biscuits play their first game next spring.
“We’re not messing around. We’re ready to go,” he said. “If we can close in 30 days, we’ll start (construction) on day 31.”
The waiting time led to some changes to the company’s original plans. The apartment layouts are bigger now, he said, but only one unit will have a loft.
There’s also a lot more activity near the building, on the corner of Perry and Monroe streets, than there was when the company signed the contract three years ago. Not far from the new City Hall, which opened in July, Foshee Management has more downtown lofts under construction.
“We’re going to have a little company now, where as three years ago we were going to be on an island,” Payne said.
The Webber Building, the home of The Montgomery Theatre in the 1800s, sat deteriorating under a collapsing roof in 2000. The nonprofit Montgomery Riverfront Development Foundation bought the building in 2001 for $325,000, restored the roof and put the building up for sale as downtown redevelopment began to take off.
But Montgomery Deputy Mayor Jeff Downes said the cost of rehabilitation kept potential buyers away. That changed, he said, when the city applied for funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s section 108 loan guarantee program. That loan offers a lower rate for qualifying projects by using future HUD grant money as collateral.
The project has been a focal point, Downes said, since the Bright administration because of the building’s history and its location.
“As you look at redevelopment of downtown, we in the city look for catalyst projects and areas that have been sort of forgotten or the redevelopment world has gone on different paths,” Downes said. “To be able to look at that corner right across from City Hall with a historically significant building, it sort of bridges the gap between the existing redeveloped areas … and lower Dexter Avenue.”
The remaining money for the project will come through a supplemental loan from Hancock Bank, and Payne said his company is doing the work “for basically no fee.”
“This is not going to be a money maker, and no one ever thought it would be,” Payne said. “It was our intention to do what we could to help with downtown development.”
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