Valpo downtown could see commercial space become apartments

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Updated: February 19, 2012 8:17AM

VALPARAISO — Some commercial space in Valparaiso is becoming living quarters.

The Site Review Committee reviewed two plans for converting spaces on the second floor of business buildings.

The more involved project involves the White Building at 609 Morgan Blvd., where Morgan and Calumet Avenue split. Brad and Carrie White plan to continue to rent to the tattoo parlor, concert/sports ticket seller and newspaper on the first floor. However, they will renovate the unused second floor into their own residence.

“It’s a great space, wide open,” he said. There’s more space than at their current home and less maintenance, such as lawn work, he added.

Carrie said they thought it’d be fun to try something new. They’ve owned the building, which was originally a lumberyard and used the second floor as storage, for seven years.

The building has a garage for them and a parking lot behind it for first-floor customers, across the alley from a house converted to an attorney’s office.

The Whites have also applied for a façade grant from the Valparaiso Redevelopment Commission, hoping for the entire $25,000 reimbursement for the estimated $75,000 in upgrades they plan. They want to refinish the non-brick areas and make it look more historic and like the downtown to the south.

The second plan the commission heard was to turn the office space above the former Cu-Koo Club at 21 N. Washington St. into an apartment. David and Juliana Grove and SK Construction of Hobart plan to make the conversion.

Phillips said that project needed few comments. Previous developers were considering the second floor and the second floor of the building south of it as multiple office space with shared meeting rooms and facilities. The bottom floor was supposed to be a restaurant.