OBERER CONSTRUCTION NEWS

GREATER DAYTON BUILDING & REMODELING NAMED NATIONAL CONTRACTOR OF THE YEAR

When Greater Dayton Building & Remodeling, an Oberer Thompson Company, was hired by Greg Gels of St. Henry, Ohio to convert his family’s former 8,500 square foot grocery store to a quaint, rustic restaurant, the Beavercreek-based remodeling firm’s goal was to win praise from their client. They had no idea the project would win national praise.
The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) has named Greater Dayton Building & Remodeling a 2006 National Contractor of the Year (CoTY) in the Commercial Specialty category of its annual awards competition for their work in creating the Gels Three Generations Restaurant, in St. Henry. Contractors from seven regions around the country vie annually to be named among the nation’s best remodeling firms.
“We are thrilled to receive this honor,” said Greg Thompson, president of Oberer Thompson Companies. “The transformation of this former grocery store into a restaurant that would reflect the Gels family’s German heritage and capture the spirit of the Mercer County community was quite an undertaking. To have accomplished this for our client and receive national recognition for our efforts is really fantastic.”
At the project’s beginning, Greater Dayton Building & Remodeling’s first task was to create a plan to maximize the former IGA grocery’s space for profit potential while also providing adequate and ADA compliant parking. The grocery’s interior held thousands of square feet of vinyl flooring, a drop ceiling from corner to corner, multiple room additions housing everything from soda pop to livestock feed and an abundance of fluorescent lights. To have a successful demolition, the company had to conceptualize how best to utilize the remaining space in the design of the restaurant.
The first goal was to reduce the space by 2,000 square feet, while the second goal consisted of breaking the floor plan into four zones: the main restaurant, the bar, a banquet area, and the backhouse facilities.
Once demolition was completed, Greater Dayton Building & Remodeling went about the task of creating a wooded wonderland for the restaurant’s interior. Doors were constructed of knotty pine and a large tree was set in the vestibule giving the appearance it was growing into the roof. The theme carried into the dining area with the addition of a gas fireplace with water effects placed in the center of the room. Constructed of stone and topped with a copper hood, the round “fire pit” design would be the focal point of the restaurant.
The restaurant’s bar area was designed to create the feel of a rustic Bier Garten. A large amount of rough lumber, salvaged from an old barn scheduled for demolition, was used for both aesthetic and structural purposes. Greater Dayton Building & Remodeling used nearly a thousand square feet of barn siding and flooring. Additional barn siding was used to decorate the walls with a traditional German Tudor look.
The building’s flat room system from the original construction was exposed to enhance the rustic wood presence in the Bier Garten. Barrels from the Woodford Reserve Distillery in Kentucky were imported to house a unique draft dispensing system. Each barrel is insulated and housed with a forced air refrigeration system to maintain temperature consistency for the draft beer.
With the entire project complete, Gels Three Generations now welcomes hungry customers to their restaurant.
Greater Dayton Building & Remodeling, an Oberer Thompson Company provides residential and commercial remodeling services. Oberer Thompson Company officially began operations in January 2004 after joining forces with Oberer Commercial Construction, Ltd. The company holds one of the Miami Valley’s most complete portfolios of residential and commercial real estate and construction services. The company also offers commercial construction and insurance restoration services. Greater Dayton Building and Remodeling has been awarded 18 Local Contractor of the Year Awards and 5 Regional Contractor of the Year Awards since 2000. This will be the company’s second National Contractor of The Year Award.

Back to News