Developer eyes extreme makeover for Kolln hardware Developer eyes extreme makeover for Kolln hardware (May 06, 2005)

Something old, something new ahead?
by Jeb Bing

A local commercial developer plans to rip apart the old Kolln Hardware store building and rebuild it to look much as it does to house new restaurants, retail shops and offices. N. W. "Bud" Cornett, whose real estate investment offices are at 1811 Santa Rita Rd., filed his reconstruction plans with the city Planning Department this week. In remarks made at a Pleasanton Downtown Association committee meeting earlier, he said that the historic Main Street building's wood siding is rotting, its roof leaks and weak, makeshift floor-to-ceiling supports make it unsafe to use. He is seeking permission to remove the siding and replace it with custom-made replacement siding to match, replace upstairs windows that no longer fit the sagging structure, and install new structural supports and an elevator and two new stairways to make all parts of the building accessible for the handicapped and to meet new building code standards. He would also move or demolish the oldest part of the structure, a small shed-like building at the rear of the former hardware store. Built in 1876 for use by the Pinkley Tin Store, it was later moved to its current location on Division Street behind the present structure, which was built in 1899. "That small building is so old and in such deteriorating condition that it's no longer useful at that location," Cornett told the PDA. "If someone wants to move it to another location to preserve it, they're welcome to take it away." Cornett said that, when completed, the rebuilt structure would have separate entrances off Main Street that could house two new restaurants and another two retail shops on its Division Street side. The second floor would be rebuilt, along with a second older structure just behind it, to provide up to 5,000-square-feet of office space. Downtown Attorney Peter MacDonald, a former Chairman of the PDA and now head of its Parking Committee, said the proposed new commercial structure, with only four parking spaces behind it, would likely fall short of Pleasanton's newly revised parking requirements. Unless Cornett can obtain additional off-street parking spaces from adjacent building owners, he could be required to pay as much as $19,000 for each space needed into an "in lieu" fund the city has established to finance a downtown public parking garage. According to historian and architect Charles Huff, the so-called Kolln Hardware building is an example of Italianate Colonial Revival-style architecture and is a well-known landmark in the city. The newer part of the building complex was built by C. A. Wise, who later sold it to Frank and Bert Lewis. In 1905, James Cruikshank and H. G. Kolln took over the building and opened the Cruikshank and Kolln hardware store. That became Kolln Hardware in 1931, operating continuously until Cornett bought the building last year and was unsuccessful in negotiating a new lease agreement with Gary Ferris, who had owned and operated Kolln Hardware for 21 years. He closed his business last June 30.

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