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Industrial building gets city's nod for office use
(by Sue Reid - February 01, 2012)
Industrial building gets city's nod for office use
By SUE REID
The Solon planning commission approved a site plan and zoning variances last week associated with the rehabilitation of an existing building in the city's industrial area.
The approval will enable International Excess Alliance to relocate its office from Richmond Heights to a 40,030-square-foot, multi-tenant office-warehouse building at the northwest corner of Cochran Road and Hall Street. It's in the I-2 industrial manufacturing district.
Plans are to build facade improvements, new parking, new landscaping and new lighting.
Variances were approved for on-site parking, total parking green space, a single access drive and a side-yard setback for a generator.
Solon Planning Director Robert S. Frankland said part of the city's goal through its master plan is for the rehabilitation and reuse of buildings in the industrial area.
"It's more cost effective," Mr. Frankland said of rehabilitation. "It costs money to tear down a building. That's the biggest drawback to any redevelopment strategy. It's more effective to reuse and upgrade the building."
The applicant is investing funds in the building, "and we are certainly glad to see them locate in Solon," Mr. Frankland said.
Building and site improvements are proposed to accommodate the proposed and future tenants for the building, part of which has been vacant since 2010.
"I hope this project is successful as it will drive reuses," commission member Roger C. Newberry said.
"I think it is a big improvement," commission member William M. Mazur said.
"It's a good use, and we welcome a new company to Solon," he said.
Mr. Frankland said the reuse of buildings is an ongoing trend in Solon. In the 1970s and 1980s when such buildings were being built, manufacturing was big in the nation, and now it is declining, he said.
"It's been necessary for the past 20 years to be converting buildings to offices and warehousing," Mr. Frankland said.
"Sometimes that is possible," he said of reuse or conversions. "For our city buildings in the industrial area, the issue is the heights. They are 20 feet or less, and we had challenges in that area," he said.
"One of the ways we are addressing it is attempting to bring offices into those industrial buildings," Mr. Frankland said. "From an economic-development standpoint, the conversion to offices is an attractive proposition to the city."
One of the city's economic-development strategies is to attract high-tech and office-type uses, Mr. Frankland said.
"That is because, for fiscal reasons, it's more attractive to the community as a whole, because it pays more toward city services and schools."
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