By: Deborah Johnson Wood
The century-old building at 61 Commerce Ave. SW had broken windows, rain damage, warped floors and dead pigeons. But there was something about it that spoke to the owners of ProCare Systems.
“We looked all over, looked at buildings in the suburbs, and we kept coming back downtown,” says CEO Cyndy Walsh of the firm’s quest for a larger home. “This area is undergoing a lot of growth and we wanted to be part of that.”
The five-story, 25,000-square-foot building has seen life as a paint store with custom paint mixing on the upper floors and as a furniture factory. Now, after a $4 million renovation, it’s the headquarters of a growing physicians’ management service that manages 17 physician’s offices throughout Lower Michigan.
“Our primary guidelines were the historic restoration rules,” Walsh adds. “We restored the windows and cleaned the interior brick walls. An interior stairway between floors one and two was a historic feature and had to be restored to its original look.”
The company kept a walk-in safe as a storeroom, replaced the roof and HVAC, and installed two external towers for new stairs and an elevator. A state-of-the-art data center on the second floor allows the 17 client offices 24/7 access to the headquarters, and a roof generator keeps the data center functioning in case of a power outage.
“We have 83 staff and it’s been kind of fun watching the way they responded to the move,” Walsh notes. “From the things like ‘we don’t want to work downtown’ and ‘what are we going to do about parking?’ Some are taking the bus and there’s lot more carpooling going on, but it’s really been a non-issue.”
Source: Cyndy Walsh, ProCare Systems, Inc.
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Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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