Pegula Sports and Entertainment’s proposed makeover of 79 Perry Street and 55 Illinois Street will be reviewed by the Preservation Board on July 13. The property was purchased in February and in April it was announced the five-story building will be anchored by Labatt USA’s offices and ground floor restaurant/brew house. Pegula Sports and Entertainment will relocate its offices from The Fairmont at 199 Scott Street into two floors of the building and residential units will be created on the fifth floor.
Pegula Sports has retained Carmina Wood Morris to design the $10 million project. It will include exterior and interior restoration of 81,000 sq. ft. in the two buildings that are within the Cobblestone Historic District. The restoration work will be designed in accordance with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation to make possible the solicitation of state and federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits to offset restoration costs.
Details from the Project Application:
The properties will be developed in a single phase project, which will restore the exterior of the buildings to their appropriate periods of significance as established by the locally and nationally certified Cobblestone Historic District in which the buildings rest. The building’s will collectively house a restaurant and brewery on the first floor, offices for North American Breweries on the second floor, Pegula Sports and Entertainment, LLC offices on the third and fourth floors, and apartment units on the fifth floor.
The building will require complete upgrades to its mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection infrastructure to meet current building codes, while maintaining the industrial / warehouse aesthetic of the interior and exterior of the building following the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards. No new construction or additions are anticipated outside of the existing footprint of the building, except for the addition of two exterior at grade patios along the southern faces of the building, replacing portions of the parking lot that currently rests in this area.
The current parking lot, accessed of Illinois Street, will be reconfigured and used for use by patrons of first floor commercial programming. Additional parking will be serviced by the parking garage and parking lots across Perry, Illinois, and Mississippi streets on the north, west, and east sides of the building respectively.
Specifically, the exterior masonry along Perry and Illinois will be stripped of its unoriginal paint finish and restored to its historic appearance. Damaged and deteriorated brick will be re-pointed or replaced in kind from salvaged materials should evaluation demonstrate reuse infeasible. Existing wood framed double hung units in the wood framed section of the structure to be ultimately restored utilizing a sash replacement approach. This will allow abatement and restoration of original wood frames, while providing opportunity for installation of energy efficient and operational sash pieces.
Industrial steel frame windows in concrete portion are too badly deteriorated to be restored so in kind replacements will be produced matching historic profiles and aesthetic. Internally historic fabric such as wood floors, steel fire doors, exposed structural elements and masonry exterior walls will be restored and highlighted in the “loft aesthetic” finish anticipated through the project.
While the design shown in April at the project announcement featured significant signage including a striking rooftop sign (above), it is unlikely preservation officials would agree to it. More from the application:
New signage on the building is expected to be appropriately scaled and placed above reconfigured storefronts and re-purposed loading bays on Perry (north) and Illinois (west) streets. As branding and signage packages are finalized we will resubmit to the Board to reappear to ensure proposal meets expected and desired appearance. Additionally all signage will also fall within SHPO/NPS review and therefore their installation will have to comply with Dept. of Interior Standards and therefore not distract from historic integrity.
A completed historic preservation tax credit project must retain the Department of Interior Standards for five years after project completion.
McGuire Development Company is overseeing the project on behalf of Pegula Sports.