The Spotlight’s former office got a lot more than a new coat of paint before several attorneys moved into it.
Brian Devane and Lee Greenstein purchased the community newspaper’s former office at 125 Adams St. in Delmar about six months ago and transformed the building to serve as offices for several attorneys. The co-owners held a ribbon cutting ceremony and holiday party on Thursday, Dec. 11, to show off the completed renovations on the front portion of the building. The back of the building is still being worked on and they are looking to rent it out to another business.
“We contracted everything out and we had great local contractors,” said Greenstein. “We made a point to use all local people.”
The companies that worked on the project include Harris A. Sanders, Architects, P.C.; Anastasi General Contracting; Graves Electrical Contracting, Inc.; John and Steven Lucarelli Stonework; Laurence Naviasky; Four Corners Frame Shop; and Jason “The Mason” Pascale. Swifty’s Restaurant & Pub catered the holiday event.
“Not having much experience, we did defer a lot of things to our contractors and they were spot on,” said Greenstein.
The pair started shopping around in the spring and found the former Spotlight News office was vacant. “It was mostly just big open spaces,” said Greenstein. The location was also convenient for both men, because they live in town.
They had been renting space in the same building on Delaware Avenue in Bethlehem, but had their separate legal practices that are continuing in the new building. The prospect of continuing to pay rent over a mortgage eventually seemed less desirable.
“We still pay rent, we just now pay rent to ourselves,” said Greenstein. He added the “pride of ownership” was another factor to their purchase.
“It’s great. I love coming here,” said Greenstein. “We get a lot of drop-ins from people that are coming in from the community, too.”
Devane said the building needed to be completely gutted and is more green, along with being ADA accessible.
“We were fortunate we got commitments from several decent tenants right out of the gate, all lawyers,” said Greenstein.
The lawyers renting space from the pair include Meredith Savitt, Laurence Naviasky, Roy Nestler, Thomas Newman and Melissa Carpinello. Having several attorneys at the same location has been a benefit, because a lawyer can refer a client to another attorney in the same building.
“It is nice because every lawyer here is their own individual attorney… but we basically have all the areas of law covered,” said Greenstein. “It has really worked out well in that regard.”
Over the years, the building has served a variety of uses. It is said to have originally served as a nine-pin bowling ally. Later, it became a coffee shop and in 1971 musician Don McLean played there, according to Greenstein.
“We didn’t find any nine-pin bowling lanes, but they would not have been able to be preserved anyways,” said Devane.
Spotlight News had rented space in the building since 1998. The former owner of Spotlight, who owned the building, ran a print shop in the back and rented the front space out to a consignment shop and a jeweler over the years.
The Spotlight, like many other weeklies, has always been printed off site, along with the company’s monthly magazines Capital District Parent Pages and Senior Spotlight.
John McIntyre, publisher of The Spotlight, was pleased the newspaper’s former office is continuing to serve the community.
The company’s decision to move was predicated by the newspaper’s landlord putting the property up for sale. The space became too big for the newspaper, said McIntyre, and the company did not have interest in buying and rehabbing the building.
“I’m really happy to see someone bought the building and did something nice with it,” said McIntyre. “Dave and Lee did a great job. It looks beautiful.”
The second phase of renovations will tackle the back portion, which is approximately 1,300 square feet of the 4,400 square-foot building.
“We are still deciding whether to fit it up for more professional offices, but interestingly we have had a wide range of tenants interested,” said Devane.
A possible use in the early stages of discussion is operating a wine bar in the back of the building. “There is nothing like that within miles,” said Devane.