1 Dietz St. Also In For Restoration

By LIBBY CUDMORE

Elise Johnson-Schmidt, the architect for Klugo Enterprises, Cortland, tells Common Council of plans to rehab Bresee’s into apartments and commercial spaces.  From left are Aldermen Kevin Honde, Lizbeth Shannon, and Madolyn Palmer, Mayor Dick Miller, and Aldermen Michael Lynch, Jr., and Paul Robinson.

Bresee’s is back on the fast-track to rebirth.
And it’s not just the former department store.
“This project is about breathing new life into downtown Oneonta,” architect Elise Johnson-Schmidt declared at a press conference Tuesday evening, May 3, in Common Council chambers.
The principal of Johnson-Schmidt & Associates was describing her anticipated outcome of her firm’s association with Klugo Enterprises of Cortland.
Doug Gulloty, Otsego County Development Corp. president, had just announced that Klugo had been awarded the contract to complete renovations of the downtown landmark and, additionally, yellow-brick 1 Deitz St., adjacent to the property.
Work is due to begin on Jan. 1.
The plan will create commercial space on the first floor, and apartments above – five two bedrooms and 10 one-bedrooms – on the second, third and fourth floors.
In particular, the proposal raves about “the delightful fourth floor, (which) would be rehabilitated to capture its special character.  Windows were nicely preserved due to the benefit of a Moderne facade protecting its historic fabric – and would be restored.”
Additionally, six apartments, or five apartments and commercial space, are planned in what’s being called the Deitz Building.
OCDC assumed ownership of the former Bresee’s from the city in 2007, with the intent to have it redeveloped.  To date, almost $4 million has been received in state grants to stabilize the property and bring redevelopment costs down to the point that it would be financial viable with market-rate housing.
A firm from Cincinnati, Ohio, Bloomfield/Schon, which had done work in Ithaca, was hired in 2008, but dropped out of the project in 2010, citing concerns about the economic dip.
OCDC had solicited new proposals, narrowed the candidates to five, and Klugo is the choice.
The company’s owner, Chip Klugo, was at the press conference, and said, “I saw the opportunity to turn a space in Oneonta into something fabulous.”
He said he doesn’t anticipate a quick return: “My commitment to the city will be my investment.  My value is at the end, not at the beginning.”
Klugo asked anyone whose has photos of Bresee’s in the old days to share them with him, to ensure the result is as historically exact as possible.
For years, Johnson-Schmidt was downtown manager in Corning during its revitalization, so is intimately familiar with the challenges being faced here.

This is Klugo Enterprises’ vision of the completed Bresee’s.