The Pike/Pine Conservation District has produced a pretty cool project, East Design Review Board members agreed Wednesday night as they approved the plans for the Kelly Springfield office development and preservation project.

“This is probably the most exciting project I’ve seen in the Pike/Pine corridor,” one board member said with enthusiasm.

The project from developer Legacy Commercial and the talented architects at Ankrom Moisan will create 65,000 square feet of office space on 11th Ave between Pike and Pine. Three stories of new offices over the old Kelly Springfield Motor Truck Company and Value Village building would be connected on the south side to a narrow five story office building that will fill-in the block’s sunken parking lot. The project includes 32 parking spots in an underground garage. Thanks to its landmarks designation, the expansive open floor plan in the building’s street level space will be maintained. However, the creosote-soaked floors will be removed. CHS previously reported on developers exploring the possibility of transforming the 12,000-square-foot former Value Village space into a food and retail “marketplace.”

Legacy, the longtime owner of the block’s buildings, abandoned plans for the larger project in 2015 after The Stranger’s White Motor Company building attained full landmark protection, and has had its hands full with previous design reviews and six meetings with the Landmarks Board’s architectural review committee, not to mention ongoing community meetings to garner neighborhood support for the project.

Wednesday night, the long process was rewarded.

“Facebook could come and take the whole building…” a presenter for the developer quipped.

Apparently, the enthusiasm was catching.