The firm has proposed converting the building at 34 N. Main St. into housing of a mix of sizes and a boutique hotel, as well as some commercial and entertainment uses in and around the lobby and atrium, officials said.
The city of Dayton selected the firm as its development partner earlier this week. Construction could take place between 2018 and 2020, according to the firm’s proposal.
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This will be Coon Restoration’s project in Dayton. But the firm, based in Louisville, Ohio, has completed some visually striking and widely celebrated restoration projects.
Here’s a look at one of their most famous projects:
The 200-room Onesto Hotel in downtown Canton was built in 1930 and was an icon of the city.
The 12-story building, with an Italian Renaissance design and decked out in fancy finishes, attracted celebrities and important political figures, including JFK and Marilyn Monroe.
But the hotel closed in the 1970s, and a more recent companion building next door (the Bliss Tower) also fell on hard times.
But Coon Restoration helped rehab the hotel into luxury loft apartments with modern amenities and high-end finishes.
The Onesto reopened in 2014. Coon also helped redevelop the Bliss Tower into 55 market-rate apartments. The entire project cost $28.5 million and completed in December.
The firm restored the hotel’s revered lobby, with its travertine marble staircases and terrazzo flooring, marble benches and walls and a crystal chandelier, according to the Onesto’s website.
“Coon went on a search for old photographs of the inside so he could recreate what the building looked like in the 1930s and he has been able to recreate the look and feel of the original hotel,” according to an article in the 2015 Canton Connection, the city’s official magazine.
The Onesto project has spurred redevelopment downtown, which has now topped $200 million in the historic district, said Coon Restoration.
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