Years of painstaking effort finally have paid off for Billy and Cathy Coleman, who have been renovating three floors of the Bancorp South building at the corner of Main and Fifth Street, since purchasing the building in 2007.
“I like old things and old things that need a little love and attention,” said Cathy Coleman, who also owns a marketing firm, AdsUp Media LLC. “I looked at three buildings, before I found this one and fell in love with it.”
“She was into buying a piece of property and renovating it,” said Billy Coleman, an Internet Technology manager at Omnova Solutions Inc. “There have been times we thought we”d bit off more than we could chew, but it”s been rewarding, especially to her.”
The bank will continue to occupy the first floor, but the Colemans are renting the second, third and fourth floors of the building as office space; either individual offices of about 1,500 square feet each or entire office suites of about 3,200 square feet are available for lease.
To renovate the building, which was first opened for business as First State Bank in 1908, the Colemans were concerned with authenticity in reproducing the style of the building”s interior.
Among various other efforts, they worked to raise the building”s suspended ceilings back to their original grand heights and lifted carpeting and other flooring materials to reveal original mosaic tiles and birds-eye maple floors.
The second and third floors each feature about 23 windows and the top floor boasts 27 windows, providing a view of downtown Columbus unlike any other.
“In my heart, Columbus is a historical town,” said Cathy Coleman. “This is the middle of it. This is the heart of downtown.
“This is a Mississippi landmark and on the National Registry,” she added, noting the renovations were part of a National Park Service project and local developer Mark Castleberry, a “good friend” of the Colemans, provided valuable insight into the project. “That means it was a significant project and it didn”t need to be in the state it was in. This is our heritage; we need to take care of it.”
“This just ties into everything that”s been done downtown,” said Billy Coleman, referring to city and county discussions to replace or renovate the nearby Gilmer Hotel, to renovate or expand the Trotter Convention Center, and to locate a new soccer complex and downtown park in Burns Bottom.
“I would do another one,” Cathy Coleman said of renovating buildings. “It”s just good to see something back as good as the way it could have been.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
