A long-vacant Enthusiast storefront is finding new life and a new lid.
Hammersmith Roofing is preparing to transfer its headquarters to 2309 W. Cary St. in the Lover.
The 2,000-sq.-foot previous laundromat has sat vacant for decades close to the intersection of West Cary and South Addison streets. Justin Dooley, Hammersmith’s operator, arrived throughout it as he was hunting for a new home foundation for his firm.
At first a computer software engineer, Dooley bought into actual estate in the early 2010s when he and a close friend began investing in household properties on the side. What commenced as some Diy fixes on his properties rapidly snowballed.
“We were just portray and including cabinets,” Dooley mentioned. “Then we just acquired into comprehensive gut rehabs and that kind of issue.”
Dooley took a liking to roofing perform and about 5 many years in the past the JMU grad took the leap and started out Hammersmith.
“It’s not that I hated what I was accomplishing, but I’d set in 16 yrs and was completely ready for anything new,” he mentioned.
Hammersmith has minimize out a specialized niche with choices that typically go beyond common shingles.
“We do a large amount of specialty roofing — slate, a large amount of metal, solitary-ply, and some specialty coatings for roofs,” Dooley said.
“We’re not truly the typical suburban roofer that places shingles on almost everything. All those jobs that appear together mainly drop into our lap. We have the functionality to do them, but we simply cannot compete in that industry based mostly on the way we’re set up.”
This approach has allowed Hammersmith to uncover most of its organization in the Lover and Church Hill, wherever Dooley explained the older buildings typically need specialty roofing.
Hammersmith has earlier leased an business office in close proximity to Regency as effectively as a handful of other small warehouses around the town. Dooley said he’s used the last 3 a long time looking for a area to consolidate Hammersmith’s functions for him and his staff members of nine. The risk of dropping expertise also drove his selection.
“We’ve been all around it was a nightmare. I experienced to do a thing. I have received to keep my guys delighted. They can go get a further work in 10 seconds,” Dooley explained. “They could get pissed off driving close to the town all the time.”
In March he purchased the West Cary developing for $356,000 and is arranging to invest an more $70,000 or so to renovate it. Dooley was represented by One South Commercial’s Justin Sledd in the offer, and Ken Campbell, also of A person South, represented the seller.
The structure of the creating will have a showroom facing Cary Street, when in the back again it’ll have places of work and a store location for gentle producing.
“Mostly what we require the store house for is intermediate storage between work and sheet metallic get the job done,” Dooley said. “For a roofing small business, we want a location to bend metallic and do sheet steel do the job.”
Charles Carbonaro of Island Architects is coming up with the project, which Dooley hopes to get likely shortly so he can transfer in in the fall.
Dooley said he’ll system to sub-contract out considerably of the development including the electrical, mechanical and plumbing upgrades the developing needs. But there is one particular specific aspect of the undertaking he’ll manage himself.
“The roof leaks terribly, so we’ll do some waterproofing,” he claimed. “We’ll hire subs for the rest, but we’ll do the roof ourselves.”