“We’ve got everything gutted out of the building,” he said. “We’ve got the roof leaks fixed. All the theater stuff’s gone, all the old yucky stuff. You can’t box up a building for 10 years without it having issues, so we’ve been able to get past all those issues at this point, and now that it’s wide-open space, now we’re ready to show it.
“It has a mezzanine halfway down the building, and it has 28-foot ceiling height, so it actually has the availability to have a second floor, or an upper-level mezzanine area, something like that. There’s some cool things that can be done with it.
“If we do land a brewery or something like that, it’s got plenty of ceiling height for those big vats that they brew in.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Helton grew up in Millville and now lives in Ross. He’s a 1982 Badin High School graduate.
“There’s just not that many buildings on that side of town with that kind of space in it, so it’s a really nice opportunity,” he said.
He, like others, is bullish on Hamilton’s future with the planned December 2021 opening of Spooky Nook Sports Champion Mill, which is prompting a number of business openings in the city.
He’s not looking to build out the project himself, “but I can definitely work with them from the rent side of things to get them in and running,” he said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Given the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, he’s willing to work with potential tenants on the rental rates, he said: “It’s going to be a commitment between me and them that we want them to get up and running, and be successful.”
Helton is working with his daughter, Taylor Helton, a recent Ohio University graduate on the project. He can be contacted at 513-478-7615 or thelton@aol.com.
SERVPRO, a company that restores buildings from mold, or after fires or water damage, bought the building and planned to use it for their business, but that didn’t work out. He was going to represent them to sell the property.
“I was looking at selling it for them, when I ended up just making them an offer to buy it,” he said.
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