The renovation of a historic downtown building constructed in 1909 has been completed with the opening of The Artisan restaurant at Brick Street Hotel.
A ribbon cutting from the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce was held last week and it represents the completion of a two-year project that began with the Brick Street Hotel at 129 N. Third Ave.
Teddy and Amy Gabbart bought the building that had been vacant for many years. It includes an Airbnb, hotel rooms and now, a restaurant.
Mr. Gabbart credited the many people for the project coming to fruition.
“There are many people that have been involved in making this come to life and a reality for the Gabbart family and all of the team that we have here together,” Gabbart said. “The restaurant itself is kind of a completion of this building. We started two years ago working on Brick Street Hotel.”
Gabbart said they wanted to create something for the downstairs that elevated and matched what was completed upstairs. He credited his wife Amy, their son Ashton and Zach Walter, who is the director of construction and maintenance.
“Ashton and Amy were instrumental in a lot of the design, the way you look at things and see things,” Gabbart said. “I was instrumental in drawing lines on paper and then Zach came in together to make those lines into reality. It’s been a great team effort across the board.”
Gabbart introduced Jeremy Spence, who is the director of operations for the company.
“We’ve got a great team that we’ve formed and we’re going to continue building and expanding as we’re doing this,” Gabbart said.
Gabbart spoke of the history of the building.
“In 1909, the building was built originally as a furniture store and they built anything with wood, from house furniture to coffins to all kinds of things were built during that time period,” Gabbart said. “From there, in the 40s, 50s, 60s, it became the Durant Print Shop, the home of the Durant Daily Democrat. It was at one time home of KSEO Radio Station and a lot of insurance companies and real estate. I was actually told that before Durant had a city hall and a city manager, the mayor of Durant, who basically ran things, his office was upstairs, and he ran it all out of here as well. So, apparently, this was a very central hub in the history of Durant overall for the building itself.
“In the 1970s and 80s, some of you all may remember the Dollar General store being here. Anybody remember that?
“I bought my first pocketknife from that,” Mark Swearengin replied, drawing laughter.
Diversified Employee Leasing was in the building for a few years, and it was the first location for Allied Stone.
“Allied Stone moved out in 2004,” Gabbart said. “There was an engineering firm that was up on the top floor that moved out in 2009 and then it was vacant, downstairs for 20 years, the upstairs for 15 years before we started working on this project. It’s been a lot of work. We hauled out 300,000 plus pounds of stuff from the demo process to remove from the building.”
The Gabbarts are also renovating the old post office building downtown and they renovated the former Durant First United Methodist Church building that is now The Bell Tower Event Center. Their next project will be the Sealy House at First Avenue and Gerlach.
Buddy Swicker, speaking on behalf of the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber loves what the Gabbarts have done for the downtown.
“You’re bringing in community, you’re bringing in people, you’re stimulating the economy, and also, it’s a great place to hang out,” Swicker said. “It’s such a beautiful building and you’ve brought it to life. Now, you’ve created something that’s going to last way longer.“ Chamber CEO Kara Byrd said, “Teddy, Amy, the Gabbart family, thank you so much for the investment that you have made into our community. It’s amazing to see what has happened when you’ve taken a vacant space and made it so vibrant and so full of life, and it’s such an honor and a privilege to have you as chamber members and just the genuine love that you have for this community. We cannot thank you enough for what you have done to invest. Not just your finances, but your time and your talent and your heart in creating such an incredible, beautiful space for Durant to showcase.”
