• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Old tobacco warehouse faces new future as apartment complex

Photo

Photo

Photo by Lukas Keapproth

Dan Rinehart points his daughter Christie’s attention to the wooden trusses in an old tobacco warehouse he owns in Edgerton. Rinehart, who owns three of the former tobacco buildings in town, plans on developing them into apartments.

Photo

Photo by Lukas Keapproth

Despite showing wear that comes with age, the exterior of the old tobacco warehouse exudes a subtle charm through its dated architecture and the murals that adorn it.

Photo

Dan Rinehart

EDGERTON — The defunct two-story tobacco warehouse along West Fulton Street has saplings growing around its foundation.

Its doorways are choked with ivy, and brick is crumbling around the arched windows in front and around back, where the building's outer walls still bear painted murals overlooking a railroad that runs past the property.

But inside, the warehouse is bone-dry and mostly empty. The heavy wooden floors, built to handle millions of pounds of tobacco, are as sturdy as when the building was built in the 1870s. The place is a huge open space—a 19,000-square-foot blank slate.

Its owner, Edgerton businessman Dan Rinehart, says the warehouse is perfect for apartments. Or at least it will be.

With the help of a city development deal, Rinehart plans to convert the two-story building into a 16-unit, two-floor apartment complex. Before that happens, the building needs hundreds of thousands of dollars in exterior repairs and roof work, Rinehart said in an interview this week.

"This is going to be full-time work," he said.

Rinehart, a Cottage Grove resident, runs a taxidermy company out of another of Edgerton's former tobacco warehouses at 203 S. Main St. He's owned three of the former warehouses since 2003, along with several single-family rental homes in Edgerton.

Rinehart's management company, Rinehart Properties, is financing the bulk of the estimated $1.3 million project. He's partnering with Cottage Grove developer Ron Grosso and Madison firm Glueck Architects.

The city of Edgerton is helping the project through a development agreement approved last week. It includes a $260,000 economic development loan which will be paid back through tax increment financing, the city reports. Pending a review of the project by the city, construction could start this fall.

Rinehart's been waiting years to find a use for the warehouse at 60 Burdick St. It's next to another warehouse Rinehart owns at 401 W. Fulton St. At some point, he hopes to convert that building to apartments as well.

With real estate foreclosures high and home sales slow, Rinehart believes the market is ripe with former homeowners who plan to return to renting long term. He said the planned apartments, which will be 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms plus appliances, should serve that demographic.

"When someone's used to living in their own home, they want more than a cracker box," Rinehart said.

Plans for units show 10-foot ceilings. Rinehart plans to keep some of the building's original features such as giant wooden beams and brick façade walls intact and in plain view. He also plans to add a wooden deck on the front of the building and to cut in dozens of new windows to match the original, 6-foot-tall windows.

Rinehart has named the development "Berberich Lofts" in honor of Mable Berberich, an Edgerton tobacco warehouse worker he knew who died in 1991. He said rent would be about $750 a month.

City officials are trumpeting the project as part of an ongoing plan to redevelop Edgerton's downtown through reuse of the city's historic buildings. Rinehart worked with the city on an earlier TIF project to repair and renovate a 60,000-square-foot former tobacco warehouse at 203 South Main St., where he houses his taxidermy business.

He said without a city development deal, the apartment project would have been unlikely.

Rinehart said the project would prevent at least one more of the city's historic tobacco warehouses from falling to ruin.

"Another five years and I think we'd be salvaging them. That was another motivating factor to get going on this project. I didn't want to be losing these great historic buildings," Rinehart said.

City crews last week were evaluating the warehouse for water service. One told Rinehart a wall in the basement was so loose he could "throw a cat through it."

Rinehart seemed to shrug off the comment. He's aware the warehouse needs work, but he said he doesn't think it's too much to tackle.

"When somebody says I'm doing too much, I take it as a compliment these days," Rinehart said. "I consider myself blessed, not crazy, to have this opportunity."