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Condos in the bank
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◆ Main Street building undergoing renovation
BY CHARLYN FINN
Thirty-one years ago the doors of the old Main Street bank were shut to business and the corporation of the First State Bank and Trust Company in Port Lavaca, on paper, was relocated to Virginia Street.
The doors were shut to business in September 1971 and for at least three decades very little activity occurred in the building. Everything was boarded up. Rain managed to come through the roof of the building no one seemed to care for anymore. The fine marble floor became dirty and hardly recognizable. Rot set in.
A small portion of the building was once used by the Art Guild and that portion in recent times has been transformed into a condo.
For all intents and purposes the building the First State Bank employees proudly moved into at the Main and Guadalupe intersection in 1947 was no longer in its hey day. Everything was re-located in September 1971 to the more elaborate building on Virginia Street.
Most of the stores on old Main Street relocated around that same time and no one showed any interest in bringing the old bank building back to life.
A couple of people purchased the building but nothing came of that. The Port Lavaca Main Street Committee purchased the building as part of the effort towards a restoration of the old part of Port Lavaca.
Ray Johnson, formerly of San Antonio, stepped forward and purchased the building. He has spent his life renovating and restoring. It looked like the sort of challenge he likes.
The purchase gave the Main Street Committee some dollars to pay for a new roof for the old theater across the street. Johnson gained a toy … a building he could ponder over and consider ideas for its restoration.
He listed some of his ideas last week but none even remotely resembled another bank.
“Oh, there are a couple of leaks but this is a very well constructed building,” Johnson said. “It blends itself to the many projects around here.”
Johnson said at one point he considered renovating the old bank into an antique mall and some offices. He thought about a building of executive suites with computer hookups. He even thought about some temporary housing for plant workers.
He has now made up his mind, he will transform the building into two floors of condos, each one with its own personality. Johnson himself will live in one of the condos.
The first floor of condos will face an atrium. Johnson said there will be a garden type of arrangement with a fountain “to make it kind of homey,”
What Johnson has in mind, he said, is something for retirees. “They could live here, travel around and feel safe because we will have a vault in here where they will be able to store their valuables.
Johnson is considering French balconies for the second floor level and patios for the first level.
Johnson said the building will be well insulated and energy efficient. The second level condos will have 20-foot cathedral ceilings and the bottom level will have 10-foot-tall ceilings.
Johnson is thinking about adding an indoor exercise pool.
“Why not, I have 10,000 square feet to work with,” he said.
Johnson is a former rancher who sold his ranch in 1984 and moved to South Padre Island. There he got involved in real estate. He owned properties in Wyoming and Arizona.
Last year he sold his South Padre property and moved back to San Antonio.
One day he decided to drive around in the Port Lavaca area and he liked what he saw. When he saw the old bank building he sort of fell in love.
He has already spray washed the exterior and it has cleaned up very well. There is a lot of work ahead for the interior but he has found useable items he can use in the refurbishing like the Italian marble and the marble pentagram on the floor.
Johnson said he is going to enjoy living in Port Lavaca. “I find the community friendly and inquisitive,” he said.
The doors were shut to business in September 1971 and for at least three decades very little activity occurred in the building. Everything was boarded up. Rain managed to come through the roof of the building no one seemed to care for anymore. The fine marble floor became dirty and hardly recognizable. Rot set in.
A small portion of the building was once used by the Art Guild and that portion in recent times has been transformed into a condo.
For all intents and purposes the building the First State Bank employees proudly moved into at the Main and Guadalupe intersection in 1947 was no longer in its hey day. Everything was re-located in September 1971 to the more elaborate building on Virginia Street.
Most of the stores on old Main Street relocated around that same time and no one showed any interest in bringing the old bank building back to life.
A couple of people purchased the building but nothing came of that. The Port Lavaca Main Street Committee purchased the building as part of the effort towards a restoration of the old part of Port Lavaca.
Ray Johnson, formerly of San Antonio, stepped forward and purchased the building. He has spent his life renovating and restoring. It looked like the sort of challenge he likes.
The purchase gave the Main Street Committee some dollars to pay for a new roof for the old theater across the street. Johnson gained a toy … a building he could ponder over and consider ideas for its restoration.
He listed some of his ideas last week but none even remotely resembled another bank.
“Oh, there are a couple of leaks but this is a very well constructed building,” Johnson said. “It blends itself to the many projects around here.”
Johnson said at one point he considered renovating the old bank into an antique mall and some offices. He thought about a building of executive suites with computer hookups. He even thought about some temporary housing for plant workers.
He has now made up his mind, he will transform the building into two floors of condos, each one with its own personality. Johnson himself will live in one of the condos.
The first floor of condos will face an atrium. Johnson said there will be a garden type of arrangement with a fountain “to make it kind of homey,”
What Johnson has in mind, he said, is something for retirees. “They could live here, travel around and feel safe because we will have a vault in here where they will be able to store their valuables.
Johnson is considering French balconies for the second floor level and patios for the first level.
Johnson said the building will be well insulated and energy efficient. The second level condos will have 20-foot cathedral ceilings and the bottom level will have 10-foot-tall ceilings.
Johnson is thinking about adding an indoor exercise pool.
“Why not, I have 10,000 square feet to work with,” he said.
Johnson is a former rancher who sold his ranch in 1984 and moved to South Padre Island. There he got involved in real estate. He owned properties in Wyoming and Arizona.
Last year he sold his South Padre property and moved back to San Antonio.
One day he decided to drive around in the Port Lavaca area and he liked what he saw. When he saw the old bank building he sort of fell in love.
He has already spray washed the exterior and it has cleaned up very well. There is a lot of work ahead for the interior but he has found useable items he can use in the refurbishing like the Italian marble and the marble pentagram on the floor.
Johnson said he is going to enjoy living in Port Lavaca. “I find the community friendly and inquisitive,” he said.
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Loves PL wrote on Oct 27, 2008 7:53 AM: