Next year will be a new beginning for Main Street’s 500 block – the street and several of its forlorn buildings. The Returning Cars to Main Street project will be complete bringing a new streetscape, traffic and parking to a block where development and investment is snowballing.
Kevin Helfer and Paul Lamparelli are redeveloping 535 Main Street. The four-story, circa-1851 building has 6,800 sq.ft. of space. Plans for the first floor will be tenant-driven. Residential space will occupy the building’s upper floors. A second floor apartment will have over 2,000 sq.ft. of living space. The third and fourth floors will feature two, two-story loft units.
535 Main is adjacent to the former Grever’s Florist building that has new upper floor windows. A restaurant is planned for the building’s first floor and the property owners reside upstairs.
Around the corner, architect and downtown booster Steve Carmina, a principal at architecture, engineering and design firm Carmina Wood Morris, and his wife Brenda have started to convert 9 Genesee Street into commercial space and their new residence.
The first floor space is getting a new storefront with 500 sq.ft. of leasable space. The residence will occupy the second, third and fourth floors. Restoration plans call for all new windows, masonry cleaning/repointing and a new roof. The grey façade will be repainted a ‘brick’ color.
There are additional plans stirring for the block where the inventory of vacant and under-utilized buildings and storefronts is shrinking.