Adaptive reuse of a vacant former mansion-turned-bank branch in Simsbury into a restaurant, event space and apartments was one of the projects recognized by Connecticut Main Street Partnership’s awards of excellence. Photo courtesy of Mark Scully

The presence of fuse manufacturer Ensign Bickford Co. is woven into the fabric of the town of Simsbury, but a building that was as a hub of the company’s early 20th century history had sat vacant and fallen into disrepair in recent years.

Most recently the former mansion at 690 Hopmeadow St. served as a Webster Bank branch. Mark and Ieke Scully, a Simsbury couple with a passion for preservation and sustainability, were the second ownership group to take a crack at restoring the property culminating with the completion of a new restaurant and five apartments. In April, the project’s embrace of smart growth principles was recognized by the Connecticut Main Street Center’s 2020 awards of excellence in its preservation and adaptive reuse category.

“It’s a redevelopment with the goal of contributing to a more vibrant downtown by providing living, working and dining options,” said Kimberley Parsons-Whitaker, associate director of the Connecticut Main Street Center. “The Ensign House just fits the essence of the Main Street approach.”

The 120-seat Metro Bis restaurant relocated to the mansion as anchor commercial tenant, along with a hair salon, before being forced to close temporarily by Gov. Ned Lamont’s moratorium on indoor dining and non-essential businesses. Work on the apartments, which rent for $1,200 to $2,800 a month, wrapped up in March.

The Scully’s share a passion for historic homes, including a restoration project at their own 1841 Greek Revival residence in West Simsbury. A retired insurance executive, Mark Scully is active in sustainability circles as president of the nonprofit People’s Action for Clean Energy and a certified Passive House consultant. He saw an opportunity to preserve a historic structure while modernizing it with efficient building systems.

A Vacant Gateway to Downtown

Originally built in 1906 as a home for a member of the Ensign family, owners of the Ensign Bickford Co., it served as a residence, offices and lodging for company visitors in the early 20th century. The First Church of Christ purchased the property in 1955 for a parish house and later enlarged it with an annex containing a chapel, fellowship hall and classrooms. From 1985 through 2013, the building was used as bank and office space. At one point, a drug store chain expressed interest in demolishing the building, Mark Scully said.

The Scully’s purchased the property in 2017 for $1.6 million, impressed with its red sandstone facade but acknowledging the significant upgrades needed including heating and cooling systems destroyed by leaks and burst radiators.

Previous ownership had considered a conversion to apartments, but the Scully’s spent nine months exploring options, including new development on the rear of the property, before settling on a ground-floor restaurant and function space with apartments on the second floor.

Residents’ response to the proposal was largely positive given the property’s high-profile location at a gateway to the downtown, and the project gained momentum when the Scully’s approached the owner and chef of a popular Simsbury bistro to serve as the anchor commercial tenant. Chris Prosperi of Metro Bis was looking for a larger location including event space, and expressed interest in moving to the Ensign House.

“We always wanted to keep the ground floor of the mansion open, because there’s so much history and so many people have stories,” Ieke Scully said. “They went to Sunday School there, or they worked in an office at the bank.”

‘Relief’ at Low Density

Simsbury’s Main Street Partnership, a nonprofit that promotes the downtown area, stepped in to provide permitting guidance to the Scully’s.

“Every step of the way, they were the concierge to make sure the Scully’s had the information to make the decisions in the right order and move things along as efficiently as they could,” Parsons-Whitaker said.

Mark Scully said there was a “palpable sense of relief” among town officials and residents that the proposal didn’t incorporate higher-density development on the 3.2-acre property.

“We were new to this and there was more permitting and regulation than we anticipated,” he said. “The town held us to those regulations but I really don’t feel they went beyond that, and they realized we were new and helped us get through that process. We felt so much goodwill on this project.”

Simsbury’s most recent plan of conservation and development identified the Ensign House as the town’s most important historic resource, and the Main Street Partnership helped the first-time developers obtain $886,000 in state and federal historic tax credits toward their equity on the project, which had a total cost of $3.5 million. Webster Bank provided the $1.6 million construction loan.

Jeff Taylor, Webster Bank’s senior vice president of business banking, said the mixed-use development plan made the project an attractive investment.

“The Scully’s came to us with that unique approach, with the tenant being a very well-known restaurant, and that piqued our interest,” Taylor said. “He’d already had the tax credits in hand, which obviously was a big plus and it makes the deal a little bit nicer.”