Toledoans ‘wander’ to glimpse projects
Local developments brushed off the sawdust and opened their doors to visitors for the first time since 2019 on Sunday for the return of Toledo’s “Wander the Warehouse District” event.
Offerings on Sunday’s four-hour self-guided tour showed off eight recently completed or under development projects in downtown Toledo.
“We go every year, and every year we’re just so thrilled and encouraged to see all the investment that’s coming back into the downtown area and the reuse of these beautiful older buildings,” Toledo resident Tom Lemon said.
Standing on the first floor of the Pink Building at 144 S. Huron St., IBC Properties development director Joe Marck laid out the vision for how he wants to see the former produce storage building be transformed into a mixed residential and commercial space.
Mr. Marck, also president of the Toledo Warehouse District Association, said that the day is to help the public get a firsthand look at what these developments could eventually become.
“It’s sort of transitioned over the last handful of years,” Mr. Marck said. “It used to be about showing the businesses, and residents that were here, but it’s sort of taken on a new way for people to get a sneak peek of projects that are coming online.”
When the event was last held three years ago prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Marck said that it drew a crowd of about 1,400. On Sunday, much of the crowd was drawn to the Pythian Castle at 801 Jefferson Ave. Built by the Knights of Pythias in 1890, developer Dave Ball purchased the building in 2016 and has worked to restore the five-story, 30,000-square-foot building into a mixed-use space.
The building is still a shell, but residents had an opportunity to walk to all five floors and were impressed with its potential.
“I love the Warehouse District tour because you get to see buildings that are just unbelievably redone, and bringing new life to downtown,” Toledo resident Kathryn Jarret said. “I’ve wanted to see this building for so many years, the Pythian Castle. I’ve watched it kind of go down and then come back up. So I’m so happy that this is open today. I could spend all day here.”
“Wander the Warehouse” featured developments on Sunday were:
● Pythian Castle, 801 Jefferson Ave.
● Fort Industry Square, 100 N. Summit St.
● H.H. Dieckman Grocery/Bahr’s Furniture Store, 713 Monroe St.
● Salem Financial, 413 Washington St.
● Ed’s Place, 44 S. St. Clair St.
● Old Roadhouse Inn, 224 S. Erie St.
● Pink Building, 144 S. Huron St.
● Ottawa Building, 110 Ottawa St.
Many of the buildings are expected to be filled out as mixed-use space, and other featured properties already have tenants. Residents could visit the 80-unit apartments now at Fort Industry Square and see the future site of the “Cork and Knife Provisions” restaurant and apartments that will occupy the Old Roadhouse Inn. The renovated Salem Financial building was also on display to show the potential the area has for office space.
Sunday’s crowd was projected at 1,000.
The day also represented an opportunity for the city to make residents aware of their public land use plan. City of Toledo planner Ryne Sundvold was at the Pythian Castle promoting the recently-announced Forward Toledo plan. He said that the plan is in line with what residents are seeing throughout the warehouse district, as the city wants to make a better effort to find new uses for buildings instead of tearing them down.
“We have 14,000 structures in the city of Toledo that have been demolished in the last 35 years,” Mr. Sundvold said. “We didn’t have a policy that guided the city in what we should do with those buildings. We need community input on the Forward Toledo plan to create a policy that guides the leaders and the city officials to know what to do with buildings in the future. This building, being the Pythian Castle, was saved, and we would love to see more buildings saved in Toledo.”
Contact Trevor Hubert
at: thubert@theblade.com,
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