[mville1]

Downtown Lancaster’s progress persuades Strasburg businessman to invest $2.3M in city

TIM MEKEEL | LNP

"When Jim Stermer noticed where downtown Lancaster is headed, he decided to jump aboard.

The Strasburg businessman recently bought downtown’s Coho Building, at 53-61 N. Duke St., for $2.3 million, courthouse records show.

Stermer, president and co-owner of Stermer Bros. Stoves & Spas, heard about the building last year from listing agents Rich Wolman and Deepa Balepur of Compass Real Estate.

“That building, in that location (across the street from the Lancaster County Courthouse), in a city that’s up and coming, I thought I ought to take a look at it,” said Stermer this week.

Stermer, 67, said he was convinced to buy the investment property — his first downtown — by reading in LNP about several major downtown economic-development projects.

Among them, he recalled, were the Lancaster Chamber’s relocation, the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square’s expansion, the Bulova building’s revitalization and Fulton Financial’s expansion.

“You see enough good things happening in Lancaster city and you think, ‘I want to be involved in that,’” said Stermer.

The Coho Building is three unified structures with sections dating to 1880. The multi-tenant building is about 95 percent occupied.

A four-story brick building of 51,000 square feet, it has about 10 office tenants and 100 employees, plus a top-floor apartment, 20 indoor parking spaces and 13 outdoor parking spaces."

http://lancasteronline.com/business/...41ad0e146.html