St. Joseph City Commissioners have approved a tax abatement for a boutique hotel project downtown.
At their regular meeting this past week, commissioners created an Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act District consisting of just one property, 500 Main Street. That used to be a library that most recently was used as office space. Owners Shannon Kutchek and John Kenna are planning to renovate it to make way for a small hotel. Kutchek told us more.
“We are going to have six rooms, five on the main level, one in the lower level, a 650 square foot speakeasy style lounge,” Kutchek said. “We are going to have a rooftop deck, a north side patio. We’re going to heavily landscape the parking lot so that in the future maybe somebody could have a small wedding or an event out there.”
Kutchek says the plan is to preserve the building as much as possible, keeping the original book shelves and woodwork while restoring the floors and skylight. The idea is to make patrons feel like they’re staying in a library. In fact, books that were originally in the library there are being purchased from the Maud Preston Palenske Memorial Library and brought back.
Kutchek says this is the seventh building she and Kenna have sought to restore.
“We bought it because we fell in love with the building. We didn’t know what we were going to use it for. We feel like it’s one of the most historical buildings in all of St. Joe. We have a love of history.”
City commissioners said they love the project and approved a 12-year state OPRA tax abatement on the property. That will freeze its property taxes for that time. The OPRA program is intended to help develop blighted or functionally obsolete property. Kutchek said the reduced property taxes will help her and Kenna recoup some of the estimated $600,000 project cost and get the hotel on its feet.
Kutchek says the goal is to be finished with the work to the building by the end of the summer.
