"We knew in time this would be a nice asset in the Golden Triangle," Cook says. "The Golden Triangle has an extreme lack of small nice office spaces."
When the market looked right, Cook started the process of restoring the building to its original look. "When a great, iconic landmark is there, it will not be my intention to change it," he explains. "Everything is back to the original. This is what this place looked like: same staircases, same floors, same everything. I did nothing except make it better."Cook has restored other old buildings further south on Broadway, as well as putting up new ones on former used-car lots.
The restoration of the Broadway Plaza started with deep-cleaning, followed by painting and staining. Now, after seven months, Cook is ready to start leasing space. The four-story building has 27 office spaces and four retail spaces between 525 and 1,402 square free; rents start at $1,000 per month for the smallest unit. There's a roof-top deck for all tenants.While the building's use has changed, the Broadway Plaza sign will remain -- although the "motel" letters might be reconfigured to "Metlo" or some other combination. "We don't want to let it go," Cook says. "Hopefully, a hundred years from now, that sign will still be at that corner."
From our archives: Colfax gets all the attention, but Broadway ties this town together
