This week, carpenters were at work turning the former Pizza Hut building on Route 61 in Pottsville into marketable office space that will soon be up for lease or sale.
"This could be almost anything, from a doctor's office to a restaurant," developer Tom McNulty, Schuylkill Haven, said Wednesday.
McNulty bought the former restaurant building and its 30-vehicle parking lot in December for $130,000. He's hired a team of contractors to renovate the former eatery. Windows, siding and a roof will be installed in a few weeks. He hopes to find a business to lease or buy the property.
"We have a couple of people looking at it," he said.
Over the past few years, McNulty developed a reputation for acquiring abandoned buildings in the Pottsville area, upgrading the properties and working with new tenants to turn them into businesses.
His achievements include the former Mady's Car Wash at 411 S. Claude A. Lord Blvd., which he renovated and reopened in 2011; and the former ExpertTire at 300 Mauch Chunk St., which became home to Original Italian Pizza and Schuylkill Real Estate in 2010.
The former Pizza Hut, a 2,600-square-foot property at 90 N. Claude A. Lord Blvd., was built in 1976.
It closed in June when Keystone Pizza Partners LLC, Kansas City, Mo., moved the restaurant to a new building across the street.
On Dec. 21, Jack Pearce, Louisville, Ky., sold the former restaurant building at 90 N. Claude A. Lord Blvd. to McNulty's Mauch Chunk Realty Enterprises for $130,000, according to the online Schuylkill Parcel Locator.
"I like the location and I enjoy doing this stuff," McNulty said.
City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar saluted McNulty's efforts.
"He's very deliberate about what he buys. He always seems to have a plan in place. He knows what he's doing. He does things very practically, which is nice. It doesn't seem to be a lot of grandiose ideas without a lot of backing. It seems he does a lot of small, deliberate things that have a purpose," Palamar said Tuesday.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, carpenters who work for McNulty wore protective dust masks as they ripped the old insulation from the ceiling.
"We're going to double up the insulation in the place and put more of it in the walls," McNulty said.
He also plans to install a heating and air conditioning system.
Quintinsky Contracting Inc., a general contracting, remodeling service based in Pottsville, is working on the roof, McNulty said.
"We put all new architectural shingles on. The style is called weathered wood," McNulty said.
The windows bordering the dining room of the former restaurant were odd-shaped rectangles that were wider on top.
McNulty said he's replacing those with rectangular windows with aluminum frames 35 1/2 inches wide and 43 inches high.
The exterior will be accented with "cut mountain stone," he said.
Siding will be added but McNulty said he may allow a future tenant to decide what color or style it should be.
The floor will be stripped down to the concrete. The future tenant will decide if it will be covered with tile or carpet, McNulty said.
"Everything will be done before the end of February. Then we'll have it available for sale or lease," McNulty said.