by KIM HILSENBECK
A downtown Kyle building was honored Friday with the 2012 Community Stewardship Award for Redevelopment by Envision Central Texas, a nonprofit organization that addresses sensible growth in the region.
Built by the Barton Homestead Place Partnership, the Barton-Word Building at 113 W. Center St. is the first privately financed two-story building constructed in Kyle in more than 100 years.
The building was developed into mixed-use space, with offices on the ground level and four apartment homes upstairs. The design incorporated “green” building practices.
Occupying one of the office spaces downstairs is this newspaper, the Hays Free Press, the oldest locally owned business in Kyle.
Hays Free Press Publisher Cyndy Slovak-Barton said the project has been in the making for many years now. She noted the contractor, Frank Hernandez of Toltec Construction, and the designer, Al Gmitter of Threshold Design Buda, are both local firms.
“This project was centered around the idea of keeping it local,” Slovak-Barton said. “We spent a lot of time looking at old photos of the original building. The facade has the same design as the original. The bricks from the building we tore down were blended into our entry way.”
This redevelopment project was of the old Teddlie Building on Center Street in historic downtown Kyle; it was previously a physician’s office and personal residence.
Slovak-Barton commended all the entries for the ECT Community Stewardship Award.
“Everyone who is entered into the Envision Central Texas contest is actually a winner,” Slovak-Barton said. “Having seen some of these projects, I know the tremendous impact they have on local communities and how they bring people, the environment, and the livability of a city together.”
