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New life for an old buildingJill Carlson
The VyMac Corp. president envisioned a thriving center for retail and corporate use where a dilapidated old building stood. He knows that once renovations are complete on the 85-year-old Creamery Building in Fort Atkinson, new businesses will be welcomed to a thriving downtown. That was then The property, located at 201 N. Main St. on the corner of Highway 12 and Sherman Avenue, was developed in the 1800s by the Cornish, Curtis and Green Co., to make wood silos and butter churns. The original buildings were destroyed by fire in 1888. In 1889, Cornish, Curtis and Green consolidated the business with Chicago-based Creamery Package Manufacturing, a producer of dairy and food processing equipment. Creamery Package Manufacturing built the current five-story building in the early 1920s and operated the building until 1960. The property was then sold to the St. Regis Paper Co., then in 1978 to the Hartel Corp., which vacated it about four years ago. This is now Three years ago, Dave Young embarked on the project to transform the Creamery Building into a multi-use building. Young has a goal of maintaining the original qualities of the building while updating it to 21st century comfort. "We want to embrace as many of the old elements as possible," Young said. The building has almost 100,000 square feet of space, with each floor spanning about 15,600 square feet. One of the updates was replication of the original window design on the first floor and replacement of the windows throughout the building. More than 300 floor-to-ceiling windows have been replaced by about $500,000 worth of thermal-pane energy-efficient windows. The old window frames were sandblasted for possible use as office dividers, saving them from the landfill. "I get a real feel for the quality and excitement this project must have brought for the original developers. There was not much done in the way of caring for the building over the 80 years or so that is has existed, but she speaks to me now, and I like what she has to say. Once we peeled back the years to partitions, drop ceilings and paint, we began to uncover a wonderful industrial designed structure," explained Young. The concrete columns on each level that support the poured concrete ceilings were stripped down and will be repainted, maintaining the industrial ambiance of the building. Ceilings will remain the original exposed industrial design. On the fifth floor, the walls of windows afford an expansive view of Fort Atkinson and the Rock River. A glass elevator in the retrofitted lobby allows passengers to take in the view. The original freight elevator, which is large enough to accommodate a car, is being refurbished for use by the building's tenants. All mechanicals and electrical systems have been updated to meet modern standards. Deterior-ation of these systems was partially responsible for the lack of use of the building during the past four years. A sprinkler system, the first in the building's history, is now in place throughout the five floors. Property next to the Creamery Building previously housed a gas station and a Pizza Hut but was cleared to create private parking for 50 vehicles for building tenants. The two-level North Building next door is being renovated for possible use as a restaurant and brewpub, and for retail. The whole building is wrapped in glass and has separate entrances from the Creamery Building. It also has a parking garage for 20 cars and contains 10,000 square feet per floor. The second floor of the North Building could be connected to the second floor of the Creamery Building to create a 25,000 square foot space. One unique feature about the North Building is the 10,000 square feet of eco-friendly green roof, which is possibly the largest green roof in southeastern Wisconsin. VyMac Properties -- a division of VyMac Corp., the parent company of Verlo Mattress Factory Stores -- bought the building, which is listed on the National Historic Register, for $600,000. VyMac Properties received a $500,000 Blight Elimination and Brownfield Redevelopment Block Grant (CDBG-BEBR) through the Wis-consin Department of Commerce for the project, which is projected to cost $8 million. Design Alliance Architects, a Fort Atkinson firm, is in charge of the design of the historic renovation. The first tenant for the Creamery Building is VyMac Corp, which will move its executive and administrative staff from White-water to the fifth floor. The manufacturing and supply divisions will remain in Whitewater. The Verlo Mattress Factory Stores franchise now in Whitewater will take occupancy in the Creamery Building's first floor. "The real challenges are picking the right tenants to ensure strong stewardship of the property we have worked so hard to bring back to its former glory. There will be great tenants in a great building when we are finished, but anyone seeking a drop ceiling and the hum of fluorescent lights overhead should look for space elsewhere," Young said. Fort Atkinson businesswoman Tisha Erdman, who owns three Main Street businesses, said she's glad that someone has taken on such a huge project. "It's a huge improvement and it's all good for Fort," she said. jilly@chorus.net madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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