Deal of the Week: This Old Warehouse Could Become the Perfect Wedding Spot
Viktoriya Tsokanoff and her husband Andrey Tsokanov spent months combing through commercial real estate listings looking for just the right property to fulfill a dream of opening a wedding venue.
They live in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where her day job is with a healthcare company but her side business is a wedding florist. “I do 20-30 weddings a year,” Tsokanoff said.
After searching throughout southeast Virginia, they eventually found what they believe is a perfect building: a 120-year old dilapidated warehouse in Cape Charles on the Chesapeake Bay side of Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Last week, the couple, both 35, paid $185,000 for the 10,000-square-foot building, more than $200,000 lower than the original list price.
The warehouse, which sits on five acres on the road into the main part of town, was built during the small town’s economic heyday in the early 20th century. Now, the couple hopes to revive it during Cape Charles’ second economic act as an emerging vacation destination.
Cape Charles got its start in the late 1880s when railroad tracks were laid to connect the area with Pocomoke City, Maryland, 67 miles north.
The small town flourished with trains dropping passengers to take steamer ships across the bay to Norfolk, Virginia.
Farmers could get their produce to big cities more easily with the new rail. Later, ferries carted automobiles and their passengers across the bay.
But the town started a steep decline after the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel opened in 1964.
In the early 1990s, people looking for inexpensive vacation homes discovered the town. Houses were so cheap, people could buy homes on their credit cards, according to Kimberley Starr, owner of Chesapeake Properties in Cape Charles, the listing broker for the warehouse.
Now, Cape Charles' little downtown area is bustling with small businesses: a pub, a coffee shop, small retail stores, gourmet markets. A brewery opened two years ago along the road heading into downtown.
“It’s turned into a real destination resort,” Starr said.
Being featured on episodes of HGTV’s "Beachfront Bargain Hunt" four times over the past few years has helped. Starr said there are two more episodes coming this fall.
Tsokanoff hopes to tap into that renewed vigor. But it will take time and money to get the warehouse in shape.
It originally served as a potato warehouse and later was converted for seafood storage, according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The warehouse has since sat empty for many years.
Tsokanoff said the roof needs to be replaced, which alone could cost $200,000 or more.
That’s just the start. It has to be outfitted with heat and air systems and new electrical. The couple also has to get through zoning and permitting to become an events venue. They are looking at two years before the venue opens.
“We plan for it to be mostly a wedding venue,” Tsokanoff said. But the old warehouse will be pitched for conference space, high school proms and other entertainment uses.
Starr said that “with everything exploding in Cape Charles, that’s a good use.”
LoopNet publishes new "Deals of the Week" every other Monday. Click here for the entire series.
