SALISBURY — The revitalization of the Empire Hotel is officially underway, as the developers and city officials held a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday announcing the beginning of the Empire Row Homes portion of the project.

“Famous actors and travelers, well-known people have all come and seen this amazing space and have lived and worked out of the Empire. It has not happened for decades, and we’re taking a huge step today to seeing it happen again,” said Downtown Salisbury Inc. President Tonyan Schofield.

The hotel is located on Main Street directly opposite City Hall and has stood unused since it closed in 1963, over 100 years after the building first opened in the 1850s as the Boyden House. In between the years 1850 and 2024, the Boyden House was renovated into the Empire Hotel and served as the center of high society in Salisbury, apartments and temporary housing and finally the subject of countless redevelopment discussions and hopes under the ownership of DSI, who purchased the building in 2007.

Developers Josh Barnhardt and Brett Krueger hosted the event in the first floor of the Efird’s section of the building, which encompasses the 15,000 sq. ft. on the West Bank Street side of the building. The developers have already received financial incentives from the city for the development of the Efird’s section, which will have two two-story row homes, seven full-floor homes and a retail space facing Main Street, according to plans previously presented to the Salisbury City Council.

“The first time I came to Salisbury, I looked at the building and said, ‘it’s the right building, I don’t know that it’s the right town,’ because I didn’t know anything about Salisbury. But then Whitney (Wallace) invited me to come back and we had dinner with the mayor and a lot of the (DSI) task force, and I realized this community, everybody wants this so bad. I want to do this project as bad for the community, now, as I want to do the building myself,” said Krueger.

The two developers leading the charge are Barnhardt and Krueger along with architect Eddie Belk. Krueger is a nationally-recognized developer with decades of experience and multiple boutique hotels on his resumé, including the Ivey’s Hotel in Charlotte and the Windsor Hotel in Asheville. Barnhardt, owner of Iron Horse Development, is a Salisbury native with experience in local historic revitalizations, including the Lofts on Innes and The Salisbury Building projects. Belk, founder of Belk Architecture, worked in historic preservation for over 45 years, repurposing 98 national historic buildings.

Barnhardt also pointed to Central Piedmont Builder’s Chad Vriesema, who is providing construction services, as a driving force behind the project.

“I think the hotel will be a big shot in the arm for the economy downtown, by getting people here, staying here. The ballroom, that will be the most historic ballroom on the East Coast of America, just to think about how gorgeous that will be. There’s 32 million cars that go by out there on the interstate every year, you’ve got the High Point Furniture Market, you’ve got the state zoo, Spencer and the railroad, there’s so many things, so many reasons people will stay here in Salisbury,” said Krueger.

Both Krueger and Barnhardt said during the event that one of their main focuses would be “doing this right,” with Kreuger noting that developers would be adding the historic domes back on top of the building. Both have also previously said that they want the history of the structure to be a prominent feature, with features such as the stamped tin roof in the hotel entrance, the hotel archway and many of the building’s moldings, arches and staircases.

“When I stood in there today, all I could think of was, this moment is our past, our present and our future. It’s that important and I know somebody’s like, ‘well it’s just an old building,’ but it brings so much. There’s no way to thank all the people that have been involved over the decades, all the past DSI members, all the past council members. There is one specific person I would like to say thank you to, former Council Member Brian Miller who was on the DSI board as our liaison for years. There’s just too many people to thank, but it means all those things. It’s honoring our past, it’s right now happening and it’s going to be here for the future. I’m very excited to see what this brings to the rest of our downtown,” said Mayor Pro Tem Tamara Sheffield, who serves as the city council’s liaison to the DSI board of directors.

Although Barnhardt noted that this project would need to be spoken about in terms of years, the project does have a timeline implemented by the purchasing contract implemented between Kreuger and Barnhardt, the city and DSI. The contract includes a $100,000 option to purchase and $310,000 purchase price on the Empire Hotel section, which is phase two of the project. To exercise that option, the developers need to have construction completed on phase one within 24 months.

The plans presented at the prior city council meeting showed three retail spaces, 37 hotel rooms and nine apartments being constructed in the Empire Hotel section, along with the restoration of the grand ballroom. The final section, the Montgomery Ward section, would include a steakhouse, 20 apartments and a spa or meeting space.

The Empire, located in the 200 block of South Main Street across from City Hall, officially opened in the 1850s as the Boyden House, named after original owner L. L. Boyden. The building then underwent renovations under the direction of Colonel Oliver Wendall Spencer around the turn of the century and was reborn as The Central Hotel and finally the Empire Hotel. Articles from a time when the hotel was still in operation painted it as the epitome of the Roaring ‘20s during that era, with a lively ballroom that made it the center of high society. It was eventually transformed into its final state a decade later, with many of the rooms being converted into apartments and temporary housing. The Empire would remain that way until it closed in 1963.

The Empire was owned by the Jonestown-based Ragdale family for most of the 1900s. Between its closure in 1963 and the purchase of the building by Downtown Salisbury, Inc. in 2007, the building was marketed as part of an N.C. Department of Commerce pilot project to attract commercial development in the 1980s, underwent multiple facelifts and has been the subject of countless redevelopment discussions.

After DSI bought the property, it had multiple plans in the works that ultimately ended just short of coming to fruition. In 2020, the organization issued another request for proposals for developers, which eventually led to Krueger winning the bidding and bringing Barnhardt on board. Belk was brought out of retirement and provided the architectural services for the project.