Pictured is the interior of Primo, an Italian restaurant in New Castle. Willey and Brown own the building, and the restaurant in managed by Brown’s daughter. Staff photo by Caleb Bauer
Pictured is the interior of Primo, an Italian restaurant in New Castle. Willey and Brown own the building, and the restaurant in managed by Brown’s daughter. Staff photo by Caleb Bauer
Two developers who plan to remodel the Todd Opera House in Dunkirk are also invested in a series of projects to revitalize a section of downtown New Castle.

Ray Willey and Bill Brown, along with other New Castle investors, own eight buildings in the city and are working to rehabilitate its historic Jennings building, much like their proposed plan for Dunkirk’s Todd Opera House.

Willey and Brown began their careers 35 years ago, starting a pizza restaurant business in California, now run by Willey’s brother. Willey said the foray into restoring historic buildings in the 1980s began as just a business decision.

“We had the opportunity to purchase a historic building in Newman, California, and that really got us into owning our own buildings,” Willey said. “We were kind of flying by the seat of our pants. But as time went on we did more and more (restorations). We knew we could acquire a building, put in one of the pizza places as our tenant. Eventually, pizza wasn’t even the driving factor.”

The pair’s restoration of historic buildings began with the 6,500-square-foot First National Bank building in Newman, and has since expanded to the 40,000-square-foot Jennings building in New Castle.

Once work is completed, the Jennings building will host four restaurants on the first floor: a coffee shop, BBQ joint, pizza sports bar and Irish pub.

The progress on the Jennings building has been delayed because of work elsewhere on smaller buildings, like the restoration of the nearby Henshaw building, which now houses an insurance office, law firm and three apartments on the upper floor.

“It’s been delayed because of weather and because we’ve taken on other projects,” Willey said.

Despite that, 20 new apartments have been completed on the second and third floors of the building, new facades have been installed and work is almost complete on an adjoining building that will house a wine bar. Currently, 18 of the 20 apartments are occupied.

Willey said he expects construction work to be completed on the Jennings building in three months, and estimates it may take another month or two after that for the restaurants to be ready to open.

Across the street, the developers own the building that houses Primo, an Italian restaurant. It is managed by Brown’s daughter, Katie Layman, and the structure incorporates salvaged materials from the Jennings building in tables, doors and other decorations.

At the Todd Opera House building in Dunkirk, work has already begun. Contractors have removed rotting floorboards on the first floor, and an architect is finishing up blueprints and plans for state building permits.

“The building itself is an architectural treasure,” Willey said. “We’ve restored theaters before, but never an opera house.”

The building, constructed in the 1890s, was the location of Vaudeville theater productions, characterized by separate acts throughout a performance and widely popular throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Willey and Brown said their focus on eateries is part of a strategy to foster additional development in downtown areas. By creating an attraction that draws customers, retail and other businesses can also become viable in areas that didn’t previously have high foot traffic, they said.

The City of Dunkirk is still negotiating a development agreement with the pair to loan $75,000 toward the project. The loan will be forgiven if the terms of the agreement are met. Dunkirk Industrial Development Corp. (DIDC) will match the city’s contribution with its own forgivable loan of $75,000.

In previous council meetings, members identified a series of stipulations they want made in the agreement, including completion within three years and the requirement that the loaned funds be used to pay no more than 50 percent of contractor invoices. The funds will be administered by DIDC.

“We just appreciate the support of the city and Jay County,” Willey said. “To restore a historic building, it takes a joint effort, a lot of people have to come together a value saving the heritage and restoring it … You have to have a lot of intersecting, complementary funding sources to make it work, and we appreciate everyone pitching in.”
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