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Mocha House Owners Perk Up Warren Landmark
WARREN, Ohio -- The acquisition of Chase Tower in downtown Warren has produced few surprises – at least unwelcome ones. “It’s been a pleasant surprise for us,” Bill Axiotis says.
Axiotis and Nick Liakaris purchased the building for $75,000 at auction in November 2011. Since then, the business partners, who own and operate the Mocha House restaurant at the edge of the central business district, have increased the occupancy of the 56,000-square-foot building to upward of 70% from 27%, Axiotis says.
“It just happened to be when we purchased the building that the shale came into play here, and other things as well,” he remarks.
Independent contractors working for BP occupy two floors in the landmark structure, Axiotis says. Other tenants are a contractor, an elevator service company, a photographer and a technology company. “So we have a wide spectrum of tenants,” he adds.
Axiotis and Liakaris are in discussions with potential tenants who include Trumbull County and Eastern Gateway Community College. “We have some other things in the mix,” Axiotis says. “They’re tentative right now but we’re looking forward to getting some of those landed as well.”
Having local ownership of the property makes a difference, Liakaris maintains.
Before they bought Chase Tower, a Canadian real estate partnership owned the building. The out-of-town ownership resulted not only in tenants not renewing their leases but hindered the absentee landlords’ ability to attract new ones, he asserts.
When an issue arises, “We’re just two blocks away running our restaurant,” he says. “You can deal directly with the owners.” A building manager is on site as well.
Among the new tenants is ShaleValley.com, an online startup that targets landowners who have leased their mineral rights.
“We also do a lot of data mining for the industry so we work with land men and other companies in the industry to provide them with information,” says Wiley Runnestrand.
“We made an active choice to come to this building,” Runnestrand says. He and the other founders of ShaleValley are all from Warren. “This has always been the main part of the community,” he continues. The influx and mix of new tenants in the building “makes a pretty great community for a startup,” he adds.
“The building itself – it’s a jewel,” Axiotis declares. Other than the qualities of the historic property itself – “It is magnificent” – lease rates in the building are deemed reasonable, $8 per square foot, including utilities, he relates.
Among the improvements to the property since Axiotis and Liakaris took possession are new carpets and repainting the fourth floor, elevator repairs, fixing the exterior clock (which hadn’t worked for 12 to 15 years), and “general upkeep” Axiotis said.
Addressing the structure and integrity of Chase Tower, “The building was maintained in great order,” Liakaris says.
Plumbing, electricity and other basics have been updated and are in “fabulous shape, better than we anticipated,” he adds.
The main problem he sees down the road is updating the restrooms on the unoccupied floors to accommodate individuals with disabilities.
The owners, who also have the Hippodrome Building downtown, are making cosmetic upgrades to the property.
“The plan is to get all the marble and brass and everything back to how it was originally,” says David Dragus, who maintains the elevators in the building and is working to restore the finishes.
“If you’ll notice the front of the building,” he says, “from on the upper corners there down, we hope to get that cleaned off, get the black off there.” The work will be done in stages. JPMorganChase Bank, anchor tenant and occupant of the ground floor, plans to polish all the brass and bronze in its space.
“Little by little, this building I think is going to be one of the jewels of downtown as it used to be back almost 100 years ago,” Liakaris says.
READ THE FULL STORY in the March edition of The Business Journal.
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Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.