Koller + Plus renovates apartment upstairs

WASHINGTON — Owners expect an apartment above Koller + Plus LLC in downtown Washington to open soon. The one-bedroom, one-bath will market to short-term tenants in town for roughly one to three months at a time.

Owner Bob Koller said the apartment had been vacant for roughly the last 10 years.

“We wanted to utilize that space up there for the benefit of the community,” he said.

The list of changes is lengthy. Accountant and Business Partner Cherie Murphy said they “gutted” the upstairs area, taking out walls, raising much of the ceiling, installing new windows, flooring, plumbing, and wiring.

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“The only thing that’s still there is the HVAC system, everything else is new,” she said.

The project was funded largely by a DIG grant from Main Street Washington and a Challenge Grant from Main Street Iowa.

The two said that funding, totaling roughly $150,000 enabled major changes that would have otherwise proven unaffordable.

“The project is much better, much more elaborate than we would have been able to do on our own,” Koller said. “These improvements probably aren’t going to improve the value of the building that much, but it is going to help out the downtown area.”

While the space isn’t expected to be ready until mid-September, the two said it was already attracting applicants, intrigued by the offer of a pre-furnished space in the heart of the community for a few months at a time.

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Koller said that was expected.

“We found out there’s a demand for short-term rentals, and we want to fit that niche as much as possible,” he said. “We had several local employers that wrote us references for the challenge grant, so we feel there is that need.”

The business hopes its investment will benefit the downtown overall, making a win-win for everyone involved.

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Murphy said that was a key goal of the renovations.

“When you look at a lot of communities, the downtown areas are dying off,” she said. “The more you make improvements in the buildings downtown, the more you sustain the shopping in the area, the restaurants in the area. People want to work downtown because it’s just nicer than letting it go into disrepair.”

Koller said the building had lot of sentimental value that he hoped to save with the refresh as well.

“I’ve been in this building since 1979, and I’ve worked out here longer than I’ve ever lived anywhere,” he said. “I want to leave it better than when I first came.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com