JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — A father and son now have plans to rebuild a Jeffersonville office building nearly six months after it was destroyed in a fire.
On Dec. 20, 2020, crews responded to a fire at 100 West Court Avenue. It took firefighters four hours to contain the blaze, but the building was a total loss.
"When I got back it was still burning," owner Bob McAuliffe said. "It was not a fire they could shut down."
McAuliffe has owned the lot since 1983, and his son Brendan now manages the property. While the site is still destroyed, the father-son duo have plans to replace the old office building.
The McAuliffes are planning on building a modern 16,000-square-foot office space. While tenants have not been finalized, Brendan McAuliffe said it will be a small business incubator.
"I think offices will be really good for corporations that are going to be downsizing in a post-COVID world, looking for some type of office space but also looking for a presence in the downtown area," Brendan McAuliffe said.
Brendan McAuliffe said the design of the building was crucial not only for the location on Spring Street and Court Avenue, or as he put it "Main and Main," but for what the world will look like post-pandemic.
"So we really wanted to look at what the building needs to look like in a post-COVID world, which can be a little different, definitely brighter, airier and more volume inside and harder materials," Brendan McAuliffe said.
Plans for the office space have been submitted and approved by the Jeffersonvile Board of Planning and Zoning and the Historic commission.
"Now we gotta go forward," Bob McAuliffe said. "So that's really what it is, it always brings up anxieties when you make change but change is always a good thing."
If all goes as planned, construction will be done by Spring of 2022.
Contact reporter Elle Smith at esmith@whas11.com or follow her on Twitter (@ellesmithtv).
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