Greg Snell, left, and Fred Hudson at the old fire station on East Granada Boulevard
Snell Legal will be relocating its Ormond Beach office to the historic Ormond Beach Municipal Building at 160 E. Granada Boulevard. Attorney Greg Snell has purchased an interest in the building from co-owner Fred Hudson and it is being extensively renovated. Snell Legal and sister title company Florida Venture Title Services will be the only occupants of the building, which has approximately 4,300 square feet of interior space.
The building was constructed as a WPA project in approximately 1936. There were no other WPA buildings built in Ormond Beach. It is made of coquina stone, which was a popular Florida building material at the time. It housed both the Police Department and the Fire Department. In recent years it served only as a fire station and the office for Ormond Main Street. The Fire Department relocated to a new station in November of 2006 and it has been unoccupied, while plans were being made for renovation, ever since. It is a landmark in Ormond Beach and one of its most recognizable buildings.
Once renovated there will be five attorney offices, four paralegal offices, two administrative offices, three conference rooms, two kitchens, three bath rooms and a reception area. The landscaping will be redone and exterior lighting and new, but compatible, signage will be added. The renovations will be done to maintain the historic integrity of the building as much as reasonably possible.
There are a variety of interesting art deco features inside and out on the building and those will all be preserved. All of the original walls, including the jail cell walls, will be kept. The fire pole will remain, but not as a functional fire pole but, rather, as a custom light fixture over the large conference room table. Art work paying tribute to the building and other local Ormond Beach historical sites will be featured throughout.
The interior designer on the project is W.B. Dodson, Inc. The contractor is AWP Construction. The architect is Stan Hoelle. So, the old Ormond Beach Municipal Building gets a new life as a modern, yet historically respectful, business law office which the clients of Snell Legal are sure to enjoy. Granada Boulevard is in the midst of a renaissance with many new businesses moving in or planning to move in and the future there is bright. The project is already garnering media attention and an article appeared in the Daytona Beach News-Journal about it on October 1, 2007. To see the article use this link: News-Journal Article.