Main Street rising

Whereas the 1990s brought transformative renaissance and economic vitality back to Davis Street, the 20teens are shaping us as the decade of Main Street.

On the heels of the anticipated State Theatre groundbreaking on South Main and in light of the ongoing renovation of the historic Herndon House on North Main is yet another major Main Street improvement project right in the middle.

Downtown developer and hospitality guru John Yarnall has partnered with David Young of Spotsylvania to create a lavish, all-inclusive banquet facility in the back area of the circa-1940s building at 137 Main St.

The estimated $2.5 million initiative includes multiple, yet separate uses in the two-story, 27,000-square-foot building. These include another Yarnall restaurant (type to-be-announced) in the right front, a Trigon Homes design studio/sales center in the left front and fully-furnished residential suites upstairs, kitchens included.

Made mostly of brick and steel, the 70-year-old structure stretches nearly all the way back to East Street. It’s so big it’s almost disorienting to wander around.

Yarnall and Young are thinking big, too.

Customer turned business partner

Owner of It’s About Thyme restaurant, Thyme Market, Thyme Suites and the newly opened Copper Fish Raw Bar — located in a row on East Davis Street — Yarnall said his idea for the banquet hall grew out of a demand for it he kept hearing from customers.

He and Young purchased the old post office at auction two years ago when it still housed Culpeper Antiques & Marketplace. Young is a retired defense contractor who first met Yarnall as a customer at It’s About Thyme. The families got close through the years and Young expanded his business interests with Yarnall as a partner on The Copper Kettle.

For the new project, art deco architecture is the inspiration — a mixture of glass, stone and metal materials. It’s no coincidence then that the art deco State Theatre, built a few years earlier in 1938, is a nearby neighbor.

“The ideal thing is to be very compliant with the theater and what they’re doing so it will bring more people into town,” Yarnall said during a recent tour of the Main Street building. “We don’t want to overstate ourselves or overlook the theater for the way it is.”

The State Theatre Foundation hopes to open a live arts center in the old movie house next fall. Yarnall and Young hope to open around the same time, estimating an 18-month construction timeline.

Live, work, play

Young said their first priority is get the façade “cleaned up” — welcome news considering its current condition. In fact, the town, using federal block grant funds left over from the 1990 renaissance, is contributing a $50,000 forgivable loan to façade improvement at Yarnall’s site as well as at the State Theatre.

Young believes in the long-term success of his project.

“A banquet facility of this capacity — around 280 people — is so needed,” he said. “There are very few things of this size without going up to Northern Virginia or Washington.”

The partners plan to bond several caterers to use the facility for weddings, meetings and other events. The idea is everything — live, play and work — all under one roof, aimed at attracting the business traveler, vacationer or wedding party.

Yarnall, like always, is involved in every design detail down to selecting the earthy textured clay covering they used on the walls upstairs to his vision for a front façade of rounded art deco glass.

He plans to incorporate his Thyme enterprise with the Main Street business, offering restaurant deliveries to the upstairs suites. Guests can also order laundry services, valet parking, a stocked fridge, even a particular brand of coffee for their room. Yarnall and Young aim to please — all for a price, of course.

A stay in the suites starts at $225 a night, depending on the level of services requested and length of stay. Two of the apartments were completed last year, and have already been successfully rented, Yarnall said.

Again, everything will link together. For example — an elevator in the center of building will exit into a “grand entrance” for a bride into the banquet area, Yarnall imagined. The suites will exit onto a garden roof. Indoor dining and a bar will connect to an outdoor area on Main Street. The banquet hall in the back will feature a full commercial kitchen.

Trigon Homes evolves

In the front, Trigon Home of Culpeper hopes to open its design center as early as this spring. The 2,000 square feet space will be “a one-stop shop for all our customers,” said Walt Cheatle, company president. His daughter and business partner Nicole Cheatle clarified that the center would be open to the general public as well, available to anyone interested in doing a home renovation project or building anew.

Folks can come in and look at exterior siding types, roofing materials, cabinets, carpet, flooring, etc., pick out what they like and have Trigon do the work, she said.

Trigon began in 1997 as a homebuilder, constructing about 75 homes per year at the peak in the mid-2000s. Last year, they built about seven. Now, in the aftermath of the housing crash and a gradually improving market, Trigon is further expanding into the rehab business with the addition of the design center.

“We’re looking to help people renovate their houses,” Walt Cheatle said, mentioning another byproduct of the market: “They can’t afford to move because they can’t get the value of their houses.”

Trigon already has eight new houses “on the books” for 2011, he said, envisioning “a pretty good year,” all things considered. He acknowledged tough business choices in recent years, including letting people go.

“We had to cut down on all the frills, bring it back down to the barebones minimum to survive — just like everyone else,” Cheatle said, expressing optimism going forward. “We think the economy has definitely turned the corner in terms of what we are seeing with buyers coming out of northern Virginia and other localities.

“There is no doubt we have a huge uptick in our business so we look at this as an opportunity,” he said of the design center. “When the market is down, this is the time for us to be planning for when it gets back up.”