Former Hostess outlet reinvented as office space
Salisbury’s downtown revitalization is taking a step to the east with the planned conversion of a rundown former supermarket building opposite City Park.
Plans for the building – which will be the new home of the architectural, engineering and surveying firm Davis, Bowen & Friedel Inc. -- were unveiled Thursday morning to a group of business and city leaders.
The firm currently occupies two floors and the basement of One Plaza East, but needed to make a move, said Mike Wigley, a principal with DBF.
“The main thing was we wanted the entire organization on one floor,” he said.
The new layout will allow easier collaboration between staff members and better accommodation for surveyors to park and unload their trucks, Wigley said.
DBF will occupy the east side of the building. The portion on the west -- just under 10,000 square feet -- is available for lease.
Brent Miller, a broker with SVN Miller Commercial Real Estate, said the building, which in recent years housed a Hostess and Wonder Bread bakery outlet followed by the Foggy Bottom gift shop, was sold to Dennis Silicato who will lease it to Davis, Bowen & Friedel.
“They’ve taken a blighted building and turned it into a first-class office building,” Miller said.
The façade of the building, which was designed by DBF, has a conservatory look so it relates to the City Park which sits directly across East Main Street, Wigley said. Outside, the parking area will include new landscaping.
Although the building sits outside the traditional boundaries of Salisbury’s downtown, Wigley said the Main Street corridor is “as important as downtown.”
Linking the two areas – separated by Route 13 and a pedestrian tunnel under a railroad bridge -- is included in a master plan for Salisbury that was unveiled recently.
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The planned renovation “sets the tone for the rest of the expansion,” said City Council President Jack Heath.
“This is the anchor on the other side of the bridge,” he said.