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Daniel Kuennen, Director Rural Development Center Richard A. Henson Center Room 2147, UMES Princess Anne, MD 21853 410/651-6183 · 410/651-6207 fax E-mail: Daniel S. Kuennen
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This article was reprinted with permission of
The Crafts Report Magazine.
It was orginally printed in the March, 2000 issue.
by Susan Ferguson
Chesapeake East Ceramics Turns An Old
Hotel Into a Home, Studio and Gallery
Many business owners have discovered that planning, hard work and solid financing can go a long way toward revitalizing and re-energizing dormant (or worse) communities by rehabbing old buildings and bringing in new businesses.
Three years ago, in Salisbury, Md., potter Dana Simson and her husband, John Orth, embarked on such a venture. Today, after a lot of the paper chasing and backbreaking labor the Chesapeake East Ceramics has become a jewel near the city's waterfront.
 The newly restored home of Chesapeake East Ceramics |
In a rough pan of downtown Salisbury, they found the dilapidated, vacant, 70-year-old Franklin Hotel. It was situated between two large vacant lots where blighted buildings had once stood. Its brick facade concealed tiny windowless rooms, ancient bathrooms, vacant offices, broken windows, a sagging tin ceiling, and a legacy of asbestos. To the city, the Franklin was just another victim of the city's urban decay. To Simson and Orth, it was a symbol of opportunity.
Simson researched the history of the hotel and the neighborhood. She visited the block several times to gauge accessibility for vehicles and pedestrian traffic. She decided that whoever had lived there and allowed the neighborhood to slip into ruin had long since moved away.
In fact, she saw a renewal on the horizon; jobs at a nearby factory brought a number of working-class people into the neighborhood each day, and traffic on a convenient nearby thoroughfare was steady. Simson hired a contractor to inspect the building and provide a rough estimate of the work needed to bring it back to life. She and Orth decided to buy it.
Research, Paperwork and Planning
Simson contacted the city government and received from the Procurement Department a bid package that outlined the requirements for acquisition. To purchase the property, Simson and Orth had to present to city and local economic development officials a viable business plan for their company. Simson researched the finer points of business plan development at the library, and she contacted local colleges and universities for help.
"Nobody's going to come to you," she says, looking back on the whole experience of developing a business plan and drawing up (he designs for construction. "You have to do your own research, go to the library, to the university, ask questions. ... I had to do the legwork."
Thanks to consultants at the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury State University, the Rural Development Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Simson's brother. a local banker, Simson received crash courses in business and economic development.
In addition to the business plan, she had to provide plans for rehabbing the structure, Simson developed the designs and concepts she wanted to include in the floor plans. City codes specified construction requirements, and an architect helped her create design specs that met those requirements. He also recommended possible general con'-' tractors. She researched the contracting firms and met with several of them before selecting the company that would oversee the work.
Aimed with a business plan and architect's drawings, Simson contacted her personal banker about financing. She also studied interest rates, researched her repayment options and asked others for recommendations. She researched government grants at the library. through government agencies, and through the guidance of consultants at the universities, When all the paperwork was done and their bid had been accepted, Simson and Orth had negotiated for slightly less than a half million dollars in loans and grants from public and commercial sources to fund the project along with money from their savings.
The Rehabilitation Process
It took six weeks and 20 dumpsters to open up the spare in the old hotel. She and/or her husband were there every day, overseeing contractors as they core out old plumbing fixtures and cleared away asbestos.
Rehabbing the building's 10,000 square feet took six months, On the second floor, they created a kitchen and a family living area, a large workroom, and a gala room for coffeehouse-style programs, including children's theater, meetings and other events. At street level, a 3,000-square-foot area was converted into production and shipping space. A retail store occupies the remaining 2,000 square feet.
The old floor, stripped of its asbestos tiles, has the texture and appearance of slate. Transom windows, reconstructed at a cost of $2,000 each, illuminate work and retail space. Recycled cabinets serve as counters. Simson, who is also an illustrator, created ceramic arches to mount above the windows, and areas of the store and workshop were painted in unique designs.
Ten months ago, Chesapeake Pottery opened its doors to the public. Today, business couldn't be better, says Simson. Located near a high-traffic area, the business attracts an upscale clientele, which is encouraging additional nearby business development. "Nobody would have ventured into this part of town before, ... This business has brought lots of positive attitude to this community." reflects Simson.
Counting earlier studio projects, the rehabbing of the Franklin Hotel marks Simson's third renovation effort. However, this is the first time she has tackled anything on this large a scale To be sure that the project went well, she personally interviewed the contractors that submitted bids to do the job. "The bottom line was that I had to feel good, to trust the people I hired," she says. "I met with a lot of people."
One of her biggest challenges was communicating with some of the subcontractors, "The business is mine - I started it. My husband works with me, but I had a hell of a time getting the construction workers to listen to me." She believes gender and some of her unconventional suggestions, like using the heat from kilns to help heat the building, may have been factors in the communication gap. In fact, this method of heating, although not originally Simson's idea has been successful.
Still, she says, if she could do it again, she wouldn't do anything differently. Establishing a business plan is essential: 'The business plan really helps you put on paper what you want to do and how to do it," she explains. "Our business plan was our passport to business development, for getting through the maze. People wanted to see that we were a viable business, that we knew what we were doing."
The best thing, she says, is that the rehab project has been good for business. "We've seen increased traffic, efficiency and employee morale."
Chesapeake East Ceramics provides pottery ware to department stores, catalogs and high-end galleries in the US, Canada and England. And now, Simson and Orth are providing downtown Salisbury a good example of what hard work, creativity, ambition and help from many sources can accomplish.
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Assistance is Available Several agencies and organizations assisted Simson and Orth during the purchasing and rehabbing process, They include:
Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development
The Neighborhood Business Development Program
The Heritage Preservation Tax Credit
Business Information Systems Network (BIS/Net)
For information about 1,890 program centers in other locations, contact the office of the national Rural Development BISNet Project Manager at:
Perdue School of Business at Salisbury State University Skipjack.Net on the World Wide Web has many links to economic development programs and services in Maryland.
Help from HUD
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