GREENSBORO, NC - Work should begin this month on an $8 million rehab of the nine-story Southeastern Building at the corner of Market and Elm streets downtown. The project, which will take a year to complete, will return the neoclassical building to its original, 1920s exterior look, including recreating six Doric columns that were removed during a 1939 remodeling. The interior of the former bank building will be converted to 51 apartments, 20,000 square feet of office space and three retail spaces, including a restaurant and nightclub.
Developers Willard Tucker and Barry Siegal bought the building, once one of Greensboro's most prestigious addresses, in June 2005 for $2.2 million. "It's been a long haul," Siegal said. "We're ready." The owners also say the building's lone, holdout tenant, attorney John S. Iorio, has agreed to vacate his third floor offices by April 15. Efforts to reach Iorio were unsuccessful.
The L-shaped Southeastern has been in decline for at least two decades and most of the tenants moved out months ago. Parts of the building have been vacant for years. In its early days, the building would have been considered a construction marvel. It had elevators and a central vacuum system and was considered the city's first fireproof high rise. Until the 17-story Jefferson Standard Building opened across Elm Street in 1923, it ranked as Greensboro's tallest building and proved so successful that an addition in 1927 increased its space to about 100,000 square feet.
Originally, the building housed the American Exchange National Bank and carried that name. When the bank failed during the Depression, Southeastern Realty Co. bought the building and renamed it. In its new life, the building will include offices on the second and third floors. "We can cut that into space as small or as large as someone would like," Siegal said. "We have a fair amount of flexibility." Floors four through nine will be converted into efficiencies and one- and two-bedroom apartments. Rents will range from $600 to $1,500. "They're not cookie cutters," Siegal said of the units. "There are lots and lots of interesting characteristics to them."
The building could bring 80 to 100 new residents to the center city. "It's a very prominent project," said Ed Wolverton, president and CEO of Downtown Greensboro Inc. "I think it shows the continued interest in people wanting to live downtown." Siegal and Tucker would not identify their prospective tenants for the restaurant and nightclub.
The rehab will mean that the sidewalk along Market will be closed for a year; the one on Elm will be blocked for a shorter period. To recover some of the restoration costs, the developers have qualified for a combined 40 percent tax credit that the state and federal governments provide for rehabilitating old buildings.
Source: News-Record.com