Former Reis & Reis office to become rental home
The former home of the Reis & Reis accounting firm, at 406 E. Spruce St. in Abbotsford, will be transformed into a single-family residence for renters after the city council approved a conditional use permit Monday.
Mike Hryndej, who owns several other rental properties throughout the city, applied for the permit after acquiring the vacant office building, which is located within a highway commercial district.
The city’s planning commission was the first to consider the proposal at a meeting held Feb. 25. Commissioners did not recommend any special conditions be placed on the property, other than it only be used as a single-family residence.
Commissioner Jim Jakel made it clear he was not happy with the way Hryndej remade the former Kramer-Schiferl Realty at 903 E. Spruce Street into a sixunit, multi-family rental with shared dining area and bathrooms.
“You made a flophouse out of a commercial building,” he said.
Last summer, Hryndej was given permission to have up to nine tenants living in the former realty office as long as he provided no less than two full-size bathrooms and required a minimum sixmonth lease from his tenants.
The commission recommended approval of the permit with the following conditions: no more than nine tenants living there at once; no more than 12 motorized vehicles kept on site; no junk vehicles; a minimum of two full bathrooms; minimum six-month leases; and all state building codes must be met.
When it comes to the old Reis & Reis building, Hryndej said he was told it was once a house before it became an office.
Commissioners expressed concerns about there being no egress in the basement of the building, but Hryndej assured them that he would put one in.
“There will be an egress,” he said. “I already know where I’m going to put it.”
Hyrndej said the building is already set up to have as many as four bedrooms upstairs, along with a kitchen, bathroom and possible dining room downstairs. He said the bedrooms will all be located upstairs until he gets an egress installed downstairs, and even after that, he plans to keep it a single-family home.
“I have no intention of doing what I did at the other place,” he said, referring to the old Kramer-Schiferl Realty office.
Closed session negotiations
Members of the planning commission met in closed session with three unnamed parties to discuss a potential residential development in the Schilling subdivision. Also included in the closed door discussion was a real estate agent hired by the city last year to market the city-owned lots in the subdivision.
No action was taken following the closed session.
