Interior renovations will begin in several weeks

Susan’s Coffee and Tea on Main Street was recently painted red and white as Five Guys Burgers and Fries prepares to move into the establishment. Susan’s closed in March after the business was sold. GLENNIS SIEGFRIED | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: DKS Editors

Passersby in front the former Susan’s Coffee and Tea may have noticed some changes in the building’s exterior recently.

Randall Matejka, president of DesignWise Construction Co. in Cleveland and the architect overseeing the building’s conversion to a Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant, said renovations to the space began in the middle of November. Such changes included paving the parking lot, patching exterior concrete and applying a first coat of exterior paint.

“The exterior is basically done,” Matejka said.

Workers at DesignWise will probably be starting interior renovations within the next two to three weeks, Matejka said. For now, a great deal of the work lies in submitting plans for review, which is the process of having different aspects such as the structural accessibility, plumbing and electricity cleared by the Kent Building Department. He said revised drawings were mailed yesterday in response to the second building review, dated Oct. 29.

The first building review was dated for Oct. 13. It took place after the Kent Building Department received the building permit application from the franchisee, Wholesome Development, LLC, Oct. 6.

Robert Nitzsche, chief building official at the Kent Building Department, said the number of reviews that take place depends on whether the contractor has met the reviewer’s list of requirements, which include local building and fire requirements as well as state codes.

“Once they have met that list it’s just a matter of issuing the building permit, so they can start interior renovations,” Nitzsche said. “We gave them the go ahead to do (the exterior changes) because they didn’t affect the building structure.”

The project should be completed by the end of February or the beginning of March, Matejka said.

Contact public affairs reporter Denise Wright at [email protected].