New Life For Building on West College

A company called West College Fund Inc. is renovating a building that sat vacant for years in Oakhurst.

Builder Pete Whitlock said he, owner Brian Clough and Weslee Knapp of Keller Knapp Realty bought the one-story building at 700 West College Avenue about a month ago.

"We've watched it for the last eight years wondering what's going to happen to it," Whitlock said.

Whitlock said they have a lease proposal from a dog food supplier for one space in the building. He thinks a bar or restaurant will take the space once occupied by Michael's Salon and perhaps a bike shop will move into the other spot.

Decatur Patch recently put the building in the "What Should Go Here?" feature. Readers suggested it could become deli, a bakery or a small movie theater.

The building probably was construced in the 1930s and for decades housed a service station called Gasoline Alley, Whitlock said.

"We'll try to make it look like it did in the thirties," he said. Renovation should be finished within two months, he said.

Whitlock said he's renovated other properties in Oakhurst, including Intown Auto Care, and .

He said West College Fund Inc. bought the bulding from East West Bank in San Francisco, which foreclosed on the property. 

The owners picked the name, he said, because "we're hoping we can pay for our childrens' college educations."