Cornerstone leasing space from Auntie Anne's in downtown post office.
By TIM MEKEEL, Staff
Lancaster New Era
Published: Aug 15, 2007 9:39 AM EST
LANCASTER, Pa. - When architect Dale R. Yoder walks into a room or building, he sees things.
Good things.
Things like possibilities and potential.
So this February, when he entered the cavernous attic of the city post office building - the future headquarters of his client Auntie Anne's - his imagination wasn't blinded by the lack of walls or windows.
Instead, almost immediately, he envisioned an exciting office someday for his own company, Cornerstone Design-Architects, now in the Granite Run Corporate Center .
That day will come in late October, now that Cornerstone has signed a long-term lease for the top floor of the Prince and Chestnut streets landmark, it was announced Tuesday.
Auntie Anne's will spend more than $500,000 to convert the area - vacant except for storage since the building opened in 1928 - into offices for Cornerstone.
"It's a high-volume space with some architectural interest to it," said Yoder. "It's not just a square box."
Indeed. With its sloping wooden sides, 19-foot ceiling, exposed steel cross-bracing and exposed steel columns, the area is anything but standard office fare.
"It's dramatic," said Sam Beiler, Auntie Anne's president and chief executive officer. "This will be a great use of space that's never had more than boxes and dust in it."
Cornerstone's design for the space incorporates the distinctive structural features and installs windows in the west, north and south sides.
In addition, it adds a 1,400-square-foot mezzanine to house the firm's library, break area, some work stations and offices. That will bring the space occupied by the firm to 6,700 square feet.
The firm now leases 3,000 square feet in Granite Run. So the project not only will bring a 15-employee firm into the city, it will allow the firm to reach 25 employees in the next three to five years.
"If we're going to continue growing, we need more elbow room," said Yoder.
And obtaining more room by converting never-occupied space into an office appeals to the architect, who believes in being a "good steward" of available buildings.
"What invigorates me is being able to take a space and re-create it into something useful for today's world, while respecting the history of the building," said Yoder.
The center-city setting also is attractive, he said, in light of the city's vitality. The fact that the Prince and Chestnut streets location is highly visible and easily accessible are additional attributes, he said.
On top of that, said Yoder, Cornerstone wants to move out of its space in Granite Run, where it leases space in the Horst Group building, to symbolize that it recently became entirely independent of Horst Construction.
Horst Construction had owned half of Cornerstone until this spring, when the contractor sold that stake to the architectural firm.
"We need to make a statement to the marketplace," said Yoder.
Though Cornerstone still is doing projects with Horst Construction, and hoping to do more, "we also want to build bridges to expand our work with other contractors and construction managers," said Yoder.
Cornerstone, established in 1990, focuses on integrated design and construction. It's led by president and majority owner Yoder, business manager Julie Parker , vice president Rick Walker and director of design and construction services John Yoder III (no relation to Dale Yoder ).
Auntie Anne's, meanwhile, is on schedule for moving its headquarters and training center from Gap to downtown late this fall.
As previously reported, the $7 million project, designed by Cornerstone, will bring 110 jobs to center city.
The soft-pretzel retailer will use 42,000 square feet in the lower level and first floor; the downtown post office will continue to occupy 8,000 square feet at the eastern end of the first floor. The 10,000-square-foot second floor is available to rent.
http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/208173