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Main Street building salePosted November 20, 2007, 1:20 a.m.
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Hays Highway Editor
BUDA – Shop owners trying to do business on Buda's Main Street hope they saw the first sign of a Main Street revitalization Monday.
The sign is a "For Sale" sign on the old Buda Bank building at 210 Main Street. It's the first sign that long-time Buda property owner Jeanette Chelf is willing to off-load her properties, including the 1898 Store, which is generally considered the key piece in the long awaited vitalization of Buda's downtown business district.
Chelf, along with Bob and Mary Ogden of Austin, owns almost all of the property on the block bordered by FM 967 on the southwest, Main Street on the southeast, Ash Street on the northeast and Austin Street on the northwest. They also own property on Main and Austin Streets north of Ash Street.
"I think it will go a long way towards revitalizing Main Street," Richard Skanse, owner of Constantine's Pizzeria on Main Street, said about the building's possible sale. "It shows that property ownership is loosening up. It makes a possibility for unknown but potentially exciting retail to go up on Main Street."
The empty bank building is being brokered by Kyle realtor Don Franke, who could not be reached Monday for comment.
Skanse's restaurant lies right between FM 967 and Ash Street. Between Constantine's and FM 967 lie four buildings that are, for all intents and purposes, dormant. The 1898 Store, the classic stone building at the corner of FM 967 and Main Street, sells antiques and nick-nacks, but it's open only for five hours on Saturdays and Sundays, if that often.
Next up Main Street is the former site of 2 Mama's Bakery, which shut down in September so its owners could concentrate on catering. Next up is the bank building, with the broken clock hanging overhead. Next up, right between the bank and Constantine's, is an antique store that has put its space up for rent.
Chelf owns the bank building and the 1898 Store outright. She shares several other properties on that block with the Ogdens.
Chelf and her late husband, Carl, along with the Ogdens, bought up much of the commercial property in downtown Buda when the city fell on hard times in the 1970s, then used the space to give young artists places to show their work and, in many cases, places to live. Among the graduates of that hippie artist community is renowned kinetic sculptor Jim LaPaso, who now operates in Kyle.
Carl Chelf died in 1986 and, during the last couple decades, the Main Street district northeast of FM 967 has slowed almost to a crawl. Main Street southeast of FM 967 is thriving in comparison, with shops, restaurants, hair stylists, an insurance agency and a grocery store. Shop owners along Main Street say they need more businesses along the strip to be open more often, which would stimulate walk-up sales for everybody.
Meanwhile, Buda is building a growing commercial tax base around national retailers and chain restaurants on the northeast end of Main Street at IH-35.
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