Capitol Street face-lift

Venerable Cox Building gets new lease on life

Robert Samples and George Manahan have given new life to the last vestige of the glory days of Capitol Street retail. Their desks are now situated where Maggie Lance used to sell what may have been the city's oddest assortment of goods -- vintage party goods, weird gag gifts, knick knacks with price stickers from the 1960s, holiday decorations and games from another era. "We can call her up and say where an office or desk is located and she knows exactly what used to be there," said Manahan, who now sits in a front corner of the fourth floor where Lance once kept her stock of party supplies. Samples and Manahan, joining forces as Damsel Industries, bought what is known as the Cox Building for $225,000 last December. They gutted it, but preserved some of the historic structural elements even as they looked to the future to transform it into modern office space. With an official opening later this fall and not all of the building's five floors yet habitable, the partners are happy with what they have done so far with the latest building on Capitol Street to get a rebirth. "We wanted that New York-style loft ad agency look," said Manahan, whose advertising and public relations company, The Manahan Group, was the first tenant last spring. Although gutted, the subflooring and some of the original hardwood floors were kept. The original brick walls were exposed, cleaned and used as a desirable and integral part of the new design. There's plenty of glass -- 10 new windows have been installed -- and a dramatic fifth floor skylight to shed a whole new light inside. Appealing stained glass accents, bold but minimalist woodwork and the use of modern transoms above inside walls give the 95-year-old building a 21st century style. On the first floor, stunning marble floors highlight a small lobby that houses an elevator to the upper floors. But it's the building's facade that presented possibly the greatest challenge and need for discernment. "Our plans had to be approved by the city," Samples said. "But they were great to work with." "We've done a lot of research on the building's history," said Manahan. "But there are some gaps. We think it was built in 1910 by a man named Cox. It was one with the building next door, the Newberry Building, although the two halves came under separate ownership in the 1960s." Both sides of the building functioned as department stores until about that time. In 1965, Stanley Lowenstein took off the upper four floors of the Newberry Building, and not long afterward the old Cox's Department Store was sold and became Lance's Card and Party Shop. That was sold in 1998 and the building sat vacant until last December. Fitting the new exterior of 222 Capitol to a street full of already beautifully restored historical buildings was necessary. But if the entire project has been a formidable task, it also has been an exciting one. "When we knew we were ready to own our building, we looked at building new at North Gate or out Corridor G," said Samples. "But we kept coming back to downtown, and Capitol Street. "We looked at this building three years before we bought it," Samples said. "But when it was presented to us again as the last available building on the best block of the best street in the capital city, which is the best city in the state, we had to buy it." "We look at it as a great investment," said Manahan. Local architect John King did the design work and construction has been by Charleston-based Eimores Construction (owned by Samples along with his father). The latter will be one of the building's tenants on the second floor, where Samples and Manahan hope to see installed a variety of young businesses in an incubator-type setting. The third floor is uncommitted at this point. While Manahan earlier had envisioned a street-level cafe, the partners now believe they have a retail store that wants to move into that space. They hope to announce the tenant later this fall and see occupancy by early next year. For now, pedestrians on the sidewalk outside the building have been treated to posters in the windows that detail some of the history of this building and the rest of Capitol Street.