Downtown building delayed

Construction has been delayed to revise plans of an apartment-commercial building at the site of the former Argyle building, across from Marathon Petroleum Corp. headquarters. Groundbreaking at the site, vacant since a 2012 fire destroyed the Argyle building, was expected to occur in spring 2023. However, the building plan must be changed to draw the interest of prospective commercial tenants, said developer Tim Spencer, of Columbus. Their sticking point: the building as planned would not have enough parking. Spencer last December received Findlay City Planning Commission approval for an $8 million, four-story building at the Main Street site. "The building, as it was approved, was too expensive and it just wasn't efficient from a construction standpoint," Spencer said this week. "So we went back to the drawing board." He said he likely will have a revised building plan completed by the end of July. He declined to discuss further details about a revised building. "We're adding more parking because nobody wants to go in the building as a commercial tenant without parking," he said. Spencer's initial plan was for the first floor to house commercial tenants and amenities for apartment tenants, including meeting rooms, lounge space, mail and package lockers, and a food delivery area. The second through fourth floors were to have a total of 24 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The plan called for 25 parking spaces behind the building. "We did increase parking on the site. Parking's a challenge for your downtown. We thought we would have an abundance of potential users and folks that would be interested in the building, but nobody (committed)," he said. "Every critique was 'lack of parking', 'lack of parking'. So we'll work out some ideas to get more parking on the site."