Pythian Castle restoration was a challenging project, but finding tenants has proven even harder for the building that has been vacant since 1974.
The building, more than 130 years old, has been under the ownership of developer David Ball and STS Management since 2016.
Mr. Ball has seen progress on the project, putting on a new roof, replacing windows, and getting the heat and electricity on again. The building could be ready to take in tenants soon.
He said that the building is currently a “shell” and can be improved depending on who decides to move in.
“It’s ready to be built out,” Mr. Ball said. “We wouldn’t do a whole lot more until we knew what the final use would be.”
He acquired the property from the Lucas County Land Bank, which gave him $276,000 to repair the structure’s collapsed roof. The building was originally built by the Knights of Pythias in 1890, sold to Greyhound Lines in 1951, and has been vacant for 48 years. Even though no tenants have moved in yet, Lucas County Land Bank President David Mann doesn’t regret the assistance that was provided.
“It was the right investment for the community,” he said. “The Pythian Castle is a landmark in downtown Toledo. Without that investment upfront and without the work that Dave Ball and team did, it’s very possible that today the Pythian Castle would have been demolished and that we would have lost that historic landmark in our community.”
Mr. Ball, STS Management president, said that the building is tenant-ready, outside of adding an elevator.
The focus now is on the adjacent former Greyhound bus station, which Mr. Ball also owns. He said that issues with staffing and increasing prices pushed the timeline for the Greyhound project back, noting that the price of steel doubled and increased the project’s cost by $1 million.
The castle occupies the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Ontario Street while the Greyhound station is at Jefferson Avenue and Michigan Street.
“We went and did a few other build-outs for some new tenants and some other projects and took a little breather from this; we were a little burnt out and dealing with what we were dealing with,” Mr. Ball said.
Mr. Mann also said that it’s up to Mr. Ball and his team to get the project to its final goal.
“It was a complicated, monumental task just to save the building, but they did the pieces of it that we all agreed were necessary and at this point, it’s kind of their project to finish and keep working through,” Mr. Mann said. “And they have a financial incentive to do it because they’ve put hundreds of thousands of dollars into that property to stabilize it.”
Mr. Ball said that he will let the market dictate who moves into the five-story, 35,000-square-foot castle. He added that it could make a good home for office headquarters or a mixed-use space with residential tenants on the upper floors.
In 2019, the city was in talks to lease the Greyhound building for its division of engineering services.
Those plans are now to be determined.
“The plans to move engineering there have been placed on hold,” city marketing and communications director Gretchen DeBacker said in a statement earlier this month. “We are reviewing all options for the city department moving forward. We hope to find a solution in the best interest of all the parties.”
Mr. Ball said that as construction prices continued to go up, the project to revitalize the former Greyhound station no longer was realistic to accomplish within the city’s budget.
Now at the station, he intends to build up the façade and replace the windows. He added that plans also call for enclosure of the bus overhang on the back of the building, which will add nearly 5,000 square feet of indoor space.
“With the Greyhound [station] next to it looking like it does, it’s not helping the marketing of the Pythian, so that’s why we’re going to go ahead and do the façade, get the Greyhound looking good and get that corner cleaned up,” Mr. Ball said.
Mr. Ball added that he plans to get the final numbers for that within the week and hopes to start construction on the Greyhound remodeling project in about a month. Once that work is done, he said that the next step is to develop a marketing plan to attract quality tenants to both buildings. He hopes the Greyhound station will be occupied by retail or office space, but like the castle, he’ll let the market dictate who moves in.
“We’re very confident that with those improvements, we’ll be able to make a big impact to that corner,” Mr. Ball said.
Mr. Ball also has a connection to Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.
Mr. Kapszukiewicz was previously criticized by his political opponents for accepting office space as an in-kind contribution from Mr. Ball during his 2017 mayoral run while simultaneously serving as land bank chairman. That came not long after Mr. Ball purchased the buildings. At the time, Mr. Kapszukiewicz and Mr. Ball said they didn’t think the offer of free office space in the downtown Gardner Building — valued at $4,000 — was a conflict.
First Published June 20, 2022, 10:11 p.m.
