Guest Speaker: Ralph Crafton
The Fargo Hotel in downtown Sycamore has undergone a transformation, thanks to the work of developer John Pappas and Ralph Crafton; but the latter told our Rotary Club at its April 19th meeting that upgrading the building wasn't easy.
He says their projects usually involve creating a building from the ground up; but with the Fargo, they had a mandate to maintain as much of the current structure as they could, and had to make what were for them some unusual changes to their regular procedures.
They had to deal with an older building with its wiring and piping already in place; much of the water and electric controls were located in inaccessible areas of the building, and they had to be moved to more convenient locations while being brought up to modern standards. Workers also had to rebuild the interior and redesign the rooms from hotel to long-term residences...as well as converting the ground floor to retail space.
They also had to tear down unusable parts of the building, including the banquet hall (the former meeting place for the Sycamore Rotary Club) and the private home built directly behind the main hotel.
But the additional effort paid off; Crafton says they held one open house to show potential tenants what the refurbished building had to offer -- and the apartments sold out in just one day. The retail space was also quickly snapped up.
Crafton says they'll now be turning their efforts to the former Otto's building in downtown DeKalb; unlike this project, they will raze the main building and start from scratch.