By Mark Wineka
Salisbury Post
The winter is a good time to wear layers.
Unless you’re the Empire Hotel.
Work continues this week in trying to strip off the layers of stucco attached to part of the facade of the old Empire Hotel, which is now owned by Downtown Salisbury Inc.
One layer of plaster was attached to furring strips. Central Piedmont Contractors tackled that layer first.
But a second layer of stucco stuck is firmly and stubbornly to the original brick.
“We hope we can still work with what’s there,” Randy Hemann, executive director of Downtown Salisbury Inc., said of the facade that will be left when all of the stucco is removed.
Central Piedmont Contractors, headed by Chris Vriesema, is expected to be on the job the rest of this week and maybe longer.
The stucco hid several arched windows (bricked in) and a lot of architectural detail found elsewhere on the Empire Hotel, which takes up at least half of the 200 block of South Main Street.
The 900-square-foot section of stucco covered only the 226-228 S. Main St addresses of the building, which used to include Watkins Fitness. It started about 16 feet above the sidewalk and hid the second and third floors on the corner.
The Empire Hotel was built in 1855 and renovated and added onto in 1907.
Hemann said removal of the stucco is necessary for making the building eligible for historic preservation tax credits. The building, which Downtown Salisbury Inc. hopes to sell to a developer, will have more value with the tax credits, Hemann said.
Downtown Salisbury Inc. has formed a committee to search for a developer. It will be preparing and sending out a “Request for Qualifications” rather than a “Request for Proposals.”
The scope and scale and all the unknowns about the project make it imperative to find the right person or company first, then develop a program of work, Hemann said.
So many different kinds of things and ways to develop the property exist, he added.
Hemann said his organization was pleased overall with the interest people have shown in the project.
The Empire Hotel contains about 88,000 square feet over three floors. Four of eight storefronts are under lease on the first floor. It covers 1.39 acres, which include a 60-car parking lot in the rear that has been used for years by First United Methodist Church.
Downtown Salisbury Inc. bought the building last July for $1 million and is asking $1.5 million, according to a listing on PreservationDirectory.com.
Hemann was meeting Monday with representatives of First United Methodist Church to continue discussions about property issues at the rear of the Empire Hotel.
Hemann said the two parties were trying to work things out so both would benefit. When a final decision is reached, it should clear the way for the church to begin the expansion which made its demolition of century-old buildings on West Fisher Street necessary.
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Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263 or mwineka@salisburypost.com.