BY JILL NAGY
After 14 years as tenants, JMZ Architects
and Planners is now the owner of its
downtown Glens Falls home at 190 Glen St.
The company said it purchased the building
on Sept. 1. The architects occupy the second
and third floors of the three-story building.
Until recently, the first floor housed Aimie’s
Dinner and a Movie and Wallabee’s Jazz Bar,
both owned by Kerry and Sandy Metivier.
The Metiviers decided on a career change.
JMZ bought the assets of those businesses
and are looking for tenants to take over that
space. So far, there are three tentative renters,
according to Tenee Casaccio, president of JMZ.
Sandy Metivier’s father, Bud Wolf, was
the owner of the building. Upstate Model Railroaders rent space in the basement but,
Casaccio said, they may move.
The purchase was partly a renewal of
the firm’s commitment to downtown Glens
Falls and partly a tribute to Robert Joy, who
founded JMZ in 1977, Casaccio said. Joy was
part of a group that purchased, renovated and
resold a row of nine Warren Street buildings
in the 1970s.
Casaccio sees the purchase of the Glen
Street building as “a wonderful legacy” that
builds on Joy’s vision for the city.
Known as the B.B.Fowler Building, 190 Glen
St. began life as a department store.
“Knowing that my grandparents shopped
in the Fowler Building, I think there was some emotional attachment to the building
here,” Casaccio said. It was vacant for several
years before Wolf purchased it in 2000 and
renovated it.
JMZ moved from its former offices on
Warren Street around the corner to the second
floor of the Fowler Building in 2001. In 2008,
they took over the third floor as well. They
fully renovated two floors of the building
when they moved in, Casaccio said, so there
are no immediate plans for further changes
to those floors. They may use some space on
the ground floor and basement.
There are 25 architects and planners in the
firm. Joy is still active in JMZ but approaching
retirement.
Casaccio is president of the company, which
now qualifies as a women-owned business enterprise. The firm focuses on projects for
institutions of higher education. Currently,
the company’s “furthest south” project is at
Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge,
she said.
The company is also just finishing work
on an addition to the child care center at
SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury and is
also working on a building for Empire State
College.
Casaccio grew up in Bolton Landing. She
earned her architecture degree at Virginia
Tech. She remained in the south for a while
but returned to this area in 1993. “I hadn’t
planned to return to this area but now I can’t
imagine being anywhere else,” she said. “There
is a great quality of life here and I’m looking
forward to many productive years here.”
Photo/Todd Bissonette Photography