10 Comments
Jul 16Liked by Addison Del Mastro

A vacant bank building near me will be divided into two businesses: a Dunks and a different bank.

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Jul 16Liked by Addison Del Mastro

When you talk about the difficulty of removing a vault from a building before repurposing it, my sick mind instantly jumped to Jeffrey Dahmer . . . I know

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Jul 16·edited Jul 16Liked by Addison Del Mastro

I was just happening by one of Starbucks in downtown Fort Wayne, IN (502 W Jefferson Blvd if one is inclined to look it up) which has taken on a vintage service station building for its shell- it's admittedly a trendy spot, and saved a nice old building from the wrecking ball. They even preserved all the overhead garage doors, and in the summer roll them up to create an outdoor cafe space. Pretty cool for a Starbucks.

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Nice! I've seen a lot of new businesses in those old-school auto garages, but I don't think I've ever seen a chain in one. I'm surprised they took one on

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Jul 16Liked by Addison Del Mastro

I think we have to give credit to Starbucks for its practice of repurposing old buildings rather than building cookie cutter plastic emporiums.

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In my husband’s hometown in central New York there is a former bank that’s now a coffee shop — but it still looks SO much like a bank, it is funny. And here in Brooklyn, our old bank is now a CBD store, with a graphiti mural where the ATM machines used to be!

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Honestly converting the vault into a walk in freezer isn’t the craziest idea.

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I really, really hope that they're using the vault to store coffee beans, and that every night at closing they seal the precious commodity away and unlock it every morning.

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Starbucks went into an old auto repair store in Glen Rock, NJ many, many years ago. It’s a really cool building with a turret on one side - almost looks like a castle. It actually makes more sense as a coffee shop than the auto replace place it was in my youth.

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I’m sure this isn’t unique, but Perry’s Steakhouse in downtown Austin is built in an old bank and turned the vault (giant door still installed) into a fun private dining room for small groups.

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