East Texas Business

By GREG JUNEK
Business Editor

After years of decline and being beaten by the weather, the old Kress store building, 116 W. Erwin St., is seeing new life as an upscale spa and fitness center.

Owners Martin and Michelle Heines officially completed construction on the building's second level on Jan. 19, although Michelle had already opened her Pilates and personal fitness training company, Balance, there last year. The work earned the project the 2007 Best Adaptive Reuse-Small City award from the Texas Downtown Association.

Balance had its grand opening party Saturday night.

"We're really proud to be a part of downtown Tyler and the renovation of the properties that has gone on in downtown," Heines said. "And of course when you put your heart and soul into a major renovation as we've done, you're glad to have the Texas Downtown Association appreciate the effort. We're really overall just proud of downtown, what downtown has become and what it will become in the future."

Heines declined to say how much he and his wife spent rehabilitating the building, which contains 5,000 square feet on each of its two floors, other than "much, much more than I anticipated but what Michelle's customers deserved."

For years, the building languished across Erwin Street from T.B. Butler Fountain Plaza, as building owners around the square refurbished many of their properties. In 2004, Rick Eltife sold Heines the building.

"Michelle and I bought the building, ... and it has been our dream to remodel this building into a first-class fitness facility that has spa services, Pilates, personal weight-training and her dance company," Heines said.

The structure is not one of the oldest in downtown. A 1946 building, it has a steel-and-concrete architectural style, which was good, Heines said, because it withstood the water that for years had leaked in when it rained.

Although he did not know when the Kress store closed, he estimated the building had been unused for 25 or 30 years.

Michelle Heines began her dance company, Contemporary Dance Techniques, and Pilates studio in downtown in 1997 above Nix Bail Bonds. For the past several years she operated the Pilates studio at Studio 107 Pilates at 107 E. Erwin.

The new location houses the dance studio and Pilates, and Michelle Heines has added weight training and the spa area.

She wanted to provide the type of spa facility one would find in a larger urban area, a Pilates program, a personal weight-training program and a facility for contemporary dance.

The Pilates program opened about five months ago, but the personal weight training and the spa portion of the business only had a soft opening. Saturday night's grand opening festivities marked their official start of business.

Heines credits his wife with being instrumental in designing the building's interior.

"Her vision really led us to the point of where we are today, and it took a long time to get there," he said. "A lot of the building materials are not materials that are typically used by contractors here in town, or subcontractors."

Michelle Heines said she drew from experience in helping design a building that would function and look as she envisioned.

"I have a modern flair about me, so I really like making the building as modern as I can make it," said Mrs. Heines, who earned a master's degree in fine arts from Texas Christian University. "What I did is put all my past experiences in New York and Dallas and Houston and everywhere I danced, and everything I liked and everything I could remember into this building. So this building is like every studio I've ever been in."

She said she wanted Balance to be a "safe haven" for people who want personal instruction and want to be pampered.

Balance employs 10-12 people. They include Pilates trainers, personal trainers, a massage therapist and staff.

Mrs. Heines has performed professionally in modern dance companies in every city she has lived, and she founded Tyer & Company Dance, a nonprofit entity, in Tyler.

The Heineses employed the Houston architectural firm Pope Design and local architects Mike Butler and Ron Mabry. General contractor was Caliber & Associates, led by Mike Fall of Mineola.

The result was a building that brings to mind among some clients upscale spas in major cities, Heines said.

"We had one client who has come in, and responded that she has lived in Seattle, and she said this appears to her like buildings in Seattle, and Seattle is one of the leading urban renewal cities in the country," he said.

The Heineses tried to retain some of the feel of the old storefront, while bringing high-quality materials and equipment to the fitness areas and spa.

The granite facade was removed from the old storefront that faces Erwin. The granite was rehabilitated and much of it was reinstalled.

Heines said he wanted to stay as true as possible to the construction technique of buildings of that era when rebuilding the front.

The building has recessed doors, just as the Kress store had, and Heines retained the building structure behind the glass in the building's new front.

Inside, a person can see original stairways, and for one section the Heineses were able to find a new stairway with the same traction pattern as the original stairway.

"This is the hardest renovation project I have ever been associated with," said Heines, who has continued a remodeling project on the Petroleum Center building on South Broadway Avenue since 2001.

Behind the front lobby, one will find the full Pilates studio. The top floor contains a full personal training studio and the dance studio. It also contains the offices for Martin Heines Properties.

In at least one area, when the floor was cleaned for a stained concrete application, stenciled writing that pertained to original store equipment became visible and can still be seen through the stain layer.

The Heineses spent two years rehabilitating the building that formerly housed the Kress store. The project earned the building the 2007 Best Adaptive Reuse-Small City award from the Texas Downtown Association. This photo shows the entrance doors and front lobby.
((Staff Photos By Herb Nygren Jr.))