Turning around North bay's downtown.

• Author: Ross, Ian

Brad Minogue walks off the space inside the darkened and historic Cochrane Block building in downtown North Bay where contractors are framing new offices and work spaces for tempered glass and LED lighting.

The local real estate developer picked up the vacant and fire-damaged 22,000-square-foot landmark edifice for $300,000 last December.

Built in 1911, the building, with its original hardwood plank flooring, post-and-beam architecture, exposed brick, and high ceilings, was an immediate hit with visitors during a city-hosted vacant building tour last summer.

A massive January 2012 fire had torn through parts of the building, displacing a sporting goods store on the Main Street side and an imports retailer to the rear on McIntyre Street.

The tour gave some much-needed exposure for the $1 million worth of interior renovations underway and delivered three new tenants to Minogue - a marketing firm, a medical software outfit and a microbrewery - now in varying stages of moving in this fall and winter.

"They were giggling in here, they were so happy to get this (deal) done," said Minogue of the principals at Sofa Communications, who are moving in Oct. 1.

The ground floor on the Main Street side requires more extensive renovations, but up top, Minogue envisions more office space or possibly beautiful loft apartments with bay windows to catch the setting sun off Lake Nipissing.

The Cochrane Block was one of 15 properties, available for sale or lease, showcased on a three-hour, door-to-door tour of office, restaurant, retail and residential spaces last July.

The event attracted 40 participants that mingled developers and potential leaseholders from North Bay, Sudbury and Muskoka with city economic development, building and fire department staff, and a volunteer from the architectural community.

"It was an opportunity for people to visualize themselves in the space," said Steve McArthur, the city's economic development officer, who came across the novel idea online after it was tried in a small city in Louisiana. "You can't capture that looking at pictures online or in an MLS listing."

McArthur pitched the event to the local real estate board, chamber of commerce, downtown improvement association and a receptive crowd of property...