Looks safe, Bob:
Oct 14, 2006
A ton of boxes marked 'fragile'
JIM BAINBRIDGE THE GAZETTE
Van Briggle Art Pottery is looking for a new and smaller home after 38 years of using the historic Midland Railroad roundhouse building at 21st Street and U.S. Highway 24 as its sole plant and showroom.
"In its day, the roundhouse was the perfect facility for us," Van Briggle vice president Craig Stevenson said, "but in the past 40 years, things in the national and local economy have changed, and it's time for us to explore our options."
Stevenson cited a sharp drop in tourism at the plant, a shift in customer preferences and uncertainty about pending changes in neighborhood traffic flow.
The city is looking into placing a median on 21st Street -- blocking left turns -- while state plans would convert bordering Highway 24 into a wider expressway while creating a north-south interchange.
"We've spent a year of looking at this transition," Stevenson said, "gathering information, getting analyses and getting ready, so this isn't just about traffic. But traffic became a real issue to be dealt with after we heard the city and state plans (this spring)."
Company owner Bertha Stevenson, Craig's mother, plans to retain the roundhouse property for storage through the transition and then hire someone to redevelop it, adapting it to commercial use.
The roundhouse has been on the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Registry of Historic Places since 1979 and can be redeveloped so long as any work done does not diminish the structural and historical integrity of the building.
Company officials are looking for a work space of about 10,000 square feet in their new building as opposed to the 38,000 square feet on two floors at the roundhouse. Van Briggle uses only 22,000 square feet, on the first level.
Craig Stevenson said the company prefers to stay on the west side and has one possible site "that we are keeping confidential right now." He declined to offer any timetable for the transition.
The move comes at the same time that Van Briggle is planning to place more emphasis on producing high-end decorative tiles that can be used in kitchens and bathrooms.
"Our prime motivating factor will continue to be art pottery," Craig Stevenson said, "but we are expanding our decorative tile offerings. For the last 10 years, we have sold gift tiles, decorative wall pieces, but now we are switching to larger tiles with more colors, the sort used to trim out counters, walls and floors."
Van Briggle is building a Web site and developing a marketing campaign for the tile line.
The company's 18 employees have been told that changes could result in a few layoffs.
Van Briggle Art Pottery was founded in 1899. The Midland Railroad roundhouse was built in the late 1880s and was used to repair locomotives until 1949. Van Briggle bought the vacant site in 1955, and operations moved to the roundhouse in 1968.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0126 or
jim.bainbridge@gazette.com
Copyright 2006
