On Wednesday, May 3, local developer Oliver Kuttner signed a contract to purchase 200 E. Main Street on the Downtown Mall for $3.7 million from former Charlottesville developer Lee Danielson.
Kuttner says he has some ideas for the 20,000-square-foot building—formerly home to education software company Boxer Learning—but there are no specific plans yet. He says he would like to bring a restaurant into the building, perhaps with a second-storey outdoor terrace that could be open all year long. Eventually, he would like to turn the west wall of the building into retail storefronts on Second Street. “I don’t decide what I’m going to do until I have a customer. You have a better design if you adapt the building to the use,” says Kuttner.
The former bank has been vacant since spring 2003, when Boxer Learning downsized and relocated. Danielson, who bought the building for $3.3 million in 2002 under the name Brahm II, LLC, made waves several years ago when he announced plans to build a nine-storey boutique hotel on the site. As late as December 2004, Danielson was predicting that wrecking balls would soon tear into the building—he did not return calls to explain what ultimately went awry with his plans.
“I’m open to a hotel,” says Kuttner. “I think people are ready for a different kind of hotel, but I don’t want to give too much away.” Kuttner says he would consider going as high as nine storeys, the City’s maximum height, but only on the south side of the building that fronts Water Street. “The Mall needs to have sunshine on it. I don’t want to make it feel like New York City,” he says. He says he would like to outdo his most recent Mall project, the Terraces at First and Water streets. Kuttner invites anyone with ideas or concerns about his latest purchase to meet him at 200 E. Main at noon on Friday, May 12, to talk it over.—John Borgmeyer
