Local business owners are hoping to breathe new life into a largely unused and historic building in downtown Altoona through a new partnership with the Altoona Area Business Community.
The Gable’s building takes up most of a city block in downtown Altoona.
Vincent Meukel, an Altoona native, said many locals remember when the building used to be a department store. It’s mostly vacant now. Meukel sees that space as an opportunity.
“The potential for the Gable’s building, for what it could do for downtown Altoona, is absolutely amazing," Meukel said.
Meukel is the president of the Altoona Area Business Community. The organization is welcoming the building as its newest member and connecting it to other businesses.
“One of the biggest barriers that small business owners have stressed to me is a lack of affordable space to be able to sell or perform their services, sell their goods or whatever their aspect of business might be," Meukel said. "And we thought this could be a great opportunity to provide spaces.”
Andrae Holsey is one of the property managers for the Gable’s building.
“We're trying to create a thriving place where people want to go and regularly spend time doing things," Holsey said.
Holsey said this partnership will make the process easier for local businesses to move into the Gable’s building.
"Now we can look to hosting open houses here, providing one-on-one member tours exclusive to the members of the business community, to talk about what additional resources I, as a manager and I as a business owner, would be willing to contribute to them developing in this building," Holsey said.
Holsey said several businesses have already shown interest, including catering and tech-based companies.
But Holsey said it could be some time before the Gable’s building becomes a hub of downtown activity. The neighboring parking garage is still out of commission. Plus, efforts continue to modernize the building, but Holsey said the city’s changing permitting process is complicating those efforts.
