BUILDING OHIO ABOVE: Gary Goosman poses next to the Amesville Community Resources for Entrepreneurs in front of the ACRE building.
An Acre of ACRE
Abandoned elementary school gets fresh start as an asset to Amesville
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STORY BY ZACH PAQUETTE | PHOTOS BY JOEY MADORE
dirty, and the school district stored a lot of desks, tables, and mall business owners face a dizzying array of supplies here. It was mostly clearing all of that out, giving it challenges. They have to hire workers, maintain away or selling it then cleaning the building because it was a place of work, and sell a product or a service. in bad shape,” Goosman says. This is where Mayor Gary Goosman of Amesville The building consists of a lot of old single-paned and the Amesville Community Resources for Entrepreneurs windows and many of them were cracked. After the building (ACRE) come in. closed and was abandoned, the boiler sat untouched. The Located at 29 Franklin Street in Amesville, ACRE lineswerenotflushedoutandwhentheyfrozeinthewin occupies the same building that was once the old Amesville thousands of feet of copper lines burst. The expense to repair Elementary School. After the school closed, the building the heating system was too great, so Goosman purchased was abandoned for almost a dozen years before the village big heaters that ran on propane. of Amesville decided to hold an auction to sell the property. Goosman saw the nearly 60-year-old building as a resource. “I didn’t want somebody to just tear it down and have a A VISION FOR SMALL BUSINESSES vacant lot. I just thought we have so little usable space in the Whenitcametimetofigureoutwhattodowiththebuildi village,”Goosmansays.“IfIgetthebuilding,I’llfigureout Goosman weighed his options. He considered turning the rooms into living spaces, but it would have cost too much. what to do with it later.” He even thought about turning the rooms into storage spaces for people to rent, but Goosman had his eye on an $3,000 AND SOME MAINTENANCE LATER idea that would keep the community involved. On the day of the auction, Goosman and several other “I knew small businesspeople had a hard time starting interested parties sat ready to bid. Everyone looked around up around here because you don’t have the capital. You’re and eventually the auctioneer started the bidding at $70,000. working out of your home in a spare room and I think that When nobody bid, the auctioneer dropped the price to the most likely scenario when I owned the building was to $60,000. When nobody bid on that, he dropped it to $50,000. find artists and small businesspeople who need the “It got down to $30,000, and then he said ‘just give me and charge well-below market rate.” a number to start the bidding.’ So, I said $3,000,” Goosman He knows he could get more, but to him, ACRE is not says. “Nobody else bid and that was it.” about making money. “It’s to allow beginning entrepreneurs Nowthatheownedthebuilding,Goosmanhadtofigure to get their feet under them, develop a business model, get a out what to do with it. But first, there was a lot of cleaning product line going, and not have too much expense. At some up to do. point, if they want to build their own studio and move on, “The building was abandoned for 12 years so it was they can,” he says. 38 | WINTER/SPRING 2022
