We have been hearing it for years from community members, EMS volunteers, and downtown building owners, "When is someone going to do something with the burnout vacant lots?" I finally have an answer!! Someone is doing something NOW! While El Dorado Main Street Board of Directors have known about the impending plans for this lot for about a year, we have been careful not to jinx it by shouting it from the rooftops. Owner of the lot, Mark McCollom with McCollom Construction, has a vision for this space and if not for Kansas Secured Title deciding to relocate and grow, this may not be happening.
Building a new building in an old downtown is not as easy as you might think. In order for the building to look like it belongs downtown, the materials to build are more expensive. Part of the reason might be the different way of thinking by builders today compared to the early 1900's; which is when most of our downtown buildings were built. Back then, it was important to build the best building that they could possibly afford. Many times, our early community developers would try to out-do their neighbors by building a better, fancier, and more impressive building than the one before. In today's economy and way-of-life, developers often try to build a building for the least amount of cost as possible. Many times this means using lesser quality materials than were used in the early 1900's. For this reason, buildings do not last as long as they used to. So now we have a new building going into an old downtown, and we are very glad that a downtown champion and previous downtown investor is the one who will be taking on this task. Mr. McCollom has an impressive track record with building rehabilitations in Augusta and El Dorado. He has even won Kansas Main Street design awards for some of his work in Augusta. We feel confident that he will do his very best to build this new building in a way that it is complimentary to the downtown area.
No comments:
Post a Comment