Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 23, 1994 TAG: 9404250153
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A 104-year-old house on the edge of downtown Roanoke is getting a facelift and an addition and will become offices for the company doing the renovation.
Building Specialists, which saved its current quarters at 120 Day Ave. from demolition, hopes to complete by September a similar renewal of 114 Day. The latter property was occupied by the G.M. Tice family until 1950, according to city records.
Bob Fetzer, an owner of Building Specialists, said the contracting company will relocate to the newly remodeled space and turn over its existing quarters to a tenant, The Principal Financial Group, which is expanding.
Architect Earle Shumate, who is a partner with Fetzer in Building Specialists and in Renovated Properties Ltd., which owns the 114 Day property, designed the renovation. The building will have 4,000 square feet of office space on three floors. Half of it will be used by Building Specialists.
Virginia Business Inc., which is a tenant at 120 Day, also might move to the new location, Fetzer said.
Fetzer and Shumate have owned the buildings, which are separated by a vacant lot, since the mid-1980s. They spent about $250,000 renovating the first house and expect to spend about that much on the current one, Fetzer said. He also said that as much of the building's original design as possible will be retained.
Building Specialists also is renovating a Victorian duplex at 109 Elm Ave. S.W. That $80,000 project is being done with a rental rehabilitation grant from the city, which means the property will have to be rented to low- to moderate-income families for at least five years. It should be ready for lease by May 1, Fetzer said.
by CNB