The contractor who bought and renovated the Pottsville Senior Community Center a few years ago is taking on a new challenge, the restoration of a vacant downtown office building at 108 N. Centre St.
"I want to put it back the way it was, and put a storefront or an office on the ground floor. If I have an anchor tenant, I can have them in here in six months. I'm talking to some interested parties but there's nothing definite," Stephen R. Buzalko, 55, of Pottsville, owner of Buzalko Properties and Buzalko Woodworking, said Tuesday.
On Sept. 15, 2012, he and his wife, Ann Marie Buzalko, 660 Gordon Nagle Trail, Pottsville, bought the three-story row building from Homer Cosmos Zavalakes, Florida, for $25,000, according to the online Schuylkill Parcel Locator.
On Tuesday, representatives of Timothy Schimpf Plumbing & Heating, Schuylkill Haven, were working to bring the building into compliance with the state-mandated stormwater/sewer project.
Buzalko is planning to replace the front windows on the second and third floor by June, and will soon present his plans to the city's Historical Architectural Review Board.
Buzalko has been a member of the board for five years.
Built in 1927, the building is a three-story row building. It stands between All American Cafe at 106 N. Centre St. and a vacant building at 112 N. Centre St.
In 1927, Gordon Nagle bought the property at 108 N. Centre St. for $65,000, knocked down a former bakery, and built the existing structure, Buzalko said. Frank X. Reilly was the architect and Nagle opened the building in 1928.
There is office space on the ground floor and three apartments on the upper floors.
"Those doors were put in years later, I think some time in the 1970s," Buzalko said.
Buzalko is still researching the building's past to figure out what stores and offices had occupied it.
"I know there was a dress shop here, and there were shoe stores here, and there was a barber shop upstairs," he said.
Born in Schuylkill Haven, Oct. 30, 1957, Buzalko graduated from Schuylkill Haven High School in 1975. He served in the Army for three years, receiving an honorable discharge with the rank of E-4.
In 1985, he opened Buzalko Woodworking on Mount Hope Avenue in Pottsville. He moved his business to 660 Gordon Nagle Trail, Pottsville, in 1989.
Aside from his business, he owns four properties in Pottsville: 201 N. Centre St., location of the Pottsville Senior Community Center; an office building at 200 N. Second St.; an office building at 405 W. Norwegian St. He also owns 401 Beechwood Ave. in Mar Lin, location of the U.S. Post Office and a house at 322 N. Center St., Frackville.