Chase Vaughn and Michael Middleton turned a lifelong dream into reality this month.
“Michael and I have been best friends since first grade,” Vaughn explained. “We always thought it would be cool to get into real estate and buy buildings.”
Fast forward more than 25 years later, and Vaughn, now a local attorney and Middleton, a supervisor at Gates Corporation, have completed their first joint real estate venture.
The pair purchased the old Renee’s Bakery building at 2 N. Washington last summer — most recently, it was Bake My Day — and then started refurbishing the building earlier this year after Bake My Day owner Nikki Sigg built her own facility in Gas.
What followed was several months of stripping the interior to the bare walls, replacing the flooring and ceiling, renovating the restrooms and replacing the HVAC units.
Or, make that installing the HVAC system, Vaughn laughed.
“It blew me away,” he said. “This place has been a bakery non-stop since World War II, and they didn’t have any kind of HVAC system.”
With the project now complete, Vaughn handed the keys this week to the building’s newest tenant, Copy Products, Inc.
Copy Products for years had been located in the 200 block of South Jefferson Avenue, before moving to an office behind Jo’s Men’s Barber Shop at 9 W. Madison Ave.
“I know they’re pretty excited about getting on the square and having their own storefront,” Vaughn said.
There remains other work for the building, which contains two separate barber shops along West Street.
With Jack’s Barber Shop and its replacement, a dog grooming business, now closed, Vaughn and Middleton will likely shift their focus to that portion of the building soon.
“It hasn’t changed at all for years,” Vaughn said, noting the wood paneling remains from when the late John Zahm ran a barber shop, and then Jack Steiner after him.
“Obviously, it’s been pretty cool, growing up in Iola, to get to work on a building like this, which has been a staple for the community,” Vaughn said. “It’s been fun getting it looking good again.”
VAUGHN and Middleton did much of the work themselves, from scraping off the pressed tin covering the ceiling, to hours of painting and adding the final touches.
“Actually, he’s much more of a handyman,” Vaughn chuckled. “I just follow his lead.”
