TOLEDO, Ohio — Downtown Toledo's Warehouse District has a rich history which continues to play a powerful role in the city's current revitalization. It showcased eight sites during the Wander the Warehouse District tours on Sunday.
Toledo Warehouse District Association President Joe Marck and his team put on the event after a two-year break from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2019 tour saw around 1,400 people.
The mission of the association, which was founded in 1987, is to benefit businesses, property owners, institutions and visitors to promote the urban area in downtown Toledo.
"If you can't go in, you don't really get the full picture. So, it was sort of an open house tour idea about 20-years ago for people to actually walk through and see from the inside," said Marck.
The tours used to be focused on showcasing only in-use businesses and living spaces, but now they show what the future holds, showing off renderings of future developments planned for buildings that have been abandoned.
The eight location tour includes residential, commercial, retail and service sites creating a truly unique tour experience.
Ambrea Mikolajcyk, part-owner of Ark Restoration and Construction, has taken part in the revitalization of the area for many years.
"It's very important to kind of reimagine what these buildings would look like, because they still hold a lot of value for the community," said Mikolajcyk.
The historic restoration work brings buildings back to life to give them a greater purpose. That includes the Old Roadhouse Inn eatery which Ark is converting into an apartment upstairs and the new Cork & Knife Restaurant below.
Those new restaurants are what attracted attendees like Daniel Shadler and his family to keep coming back to downtown Toledo.
"We're kind of like building up, we're getting closer to city structure. It really brings the community closer together as well and really gets people out and going out," said Shadler.
The warehouse district is one of many components for the revitalization goal of downtown Toledo.
The attendees Sunday help fund the association's studies which will hopefully help them achieve those goals.