Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

At the rear of the renovated building, space is used for monitoring Access client advertising and other broadcast information on four different stations.

Photo courtesy of Access

Among the features that helped sell Tony Pearman and partner Todd Marcum on the Enfield building were its barrel-vaulted ceiling, exposed brick walls and wide-open, airy spaces. Access moved into the building in December, leaving cramped quarters in Grandin Village.

Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Tony Pearman, chief executive officer of Access, walks inside the newly renovated historic Enfield building his company now occupies. Pearman and his partner Todd Marcum spent about $1 million giving the facility a face-lift before Access moved in.

Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Access, a Roanoke advertising and public relations company, has moved into its new offices at 710 Patterson Ave. The circa-1930 building once housed Enfield Buick and Blue Ridge Motors, and later a Double Cola bottling plant.

Pomposity played no part when the principals of a Roanoke company bought and renovated a run-down building situated just a short stroll from a longtime strip club on Patterson Avenue Southwest.

In other words, executives for Access, an advertising, design and public relations company in Roanoke, did not intentionally set out to contribute to the slow but steady creep of urban redevelopment up the corridors of West Campbell and Salem avenues.

"We just loved the building," said Tony Pearman, chief executive officer and chief creative officer of Access, which moved into the impressively rehabilitated structure in December.

Still, the building's renovation and restoration provides another tangible sign that redevelopment continues to travel west from the city's heart. And both Pearman and Todd Marcum, Access' president, express excitement about that trend -- which has transformed vacant or underutilized buildings along Campbell and Salem avenues into art galleries, condominiums, apartments, restaurants, office space and other uses.

The men also mentioned developer Ed Walker's conversion of the old Virginia Mills Cotton Products plant nearby on Sixth Street into condominiums and the possibility of a new restaurant along Marshall Avenue.

These latest projects, including Access' on Patterson Avenue, occupy streets long considered tough.

"We are not naive," Pearman said. "We went into this project with our eyes wide open. We love this neighborhood. We're glad to be out on point. But we're glad to not be out there alone."

He said the building has a first-rate security system, but so did Access' former home in Grandin Village.

Buicks and bottles

As Ground Zero Development LLC, Pearman and Marcum paid $265,000 for the building nearly three years ago. They then invested about $1 million more to renovate the circa-1930 building, once a Buick dealership, with a dramatic yet historically sensitive overhaul.

Built originally as the Enfield Buick building, it housed automotive dealerships until the early 1960s. Then, it housed a bottling plant for a local Double Cola franchise.

When renovations began, a few artifacts surfaced -- including a Buick door handle and Double Cola bottles (empty), T-shirts and associated marketing trinkets. The handle now serves a sliding door.

Working with historic preservation officials, city building inspectors, Spectrum Design and Haynes Construction, the project moved forward. The intent all along was to preserve the building's historic character, both because of Pearman and Marcum's affection for the structure and because of the prospect of earning historic tax credits to help fund renovations.

"First and foremost, I loved the bones of the building," Pearman said, citing its barrel-vaulted ceiling, exposed brick, original woodwork in some back offices and a host of other original features.

In addition, he said, unlike many other older buildings he and Marcum considered, "no one had screwed this one up" with ill-considered "improvements."

The building was, he said, "a blank canvas."

"And the financial incentives are great, allowing a small business like ours to make an investment like this," Pearman said.

Historic district

The Enfield building is within the boundaries of the Roanoke Automotive Commercial Historic District and the structure's renovation, within historic preservation guidelines, allowed the project to seek historic tax credits. The building also falls within an enterprise zone, which can offer a number of incentives for redevelopment.

Historic renovation typically adds expense and headaches. Compliance with modern building codes and with access requirements for people with disabilities can also amplify costs and stress.

Marcum said two key factors helped keep costs down and meet deadlines.

One was Pearman's father, Tom, who handled much of the project's metalwork.

"He could make a nuclear sub out of a paper clip," Marcum said.

And the other was Haynes Construction, Pearman said, which "exceeded every expectation we had."

Now, Pearman, Marcum and other Access employees say they love the new space.

From cramped to cool

The company's former home, in a small house converted to office space in Grandin Village, had become impossibly cramped. People worked in spaces once used for closets. Three workers occupied what once served as a conference room. There were two desks in a hallway, near a restroom.

"We got to the point where we kind of hesitated to bring clients in," Pearman said. "Now, we jump at the chance."

Trends in the advertising and public relations industry also motivated Access to search for quarters with a wide-open floor plan.

Pearman said businesses have literally been breaking down walls to facilitate a "creative workflow," collaboration and open-ended thinking.

"We hope this space will provide that."