WHEELING –Looking to capitalize on the demand for downtown housing, C.J. Kaiser hopes to continue renovating the former Bill’s Hamburger building so the pre-Civil War structure located between the Capitol Theatre and the Wheeling Suspension Bridge features apartments on the upper floors.

In the meantime, contractors continue an extensive renovation of the first floor in hopes of allowing the J. Jones Evening Wear formal attire shop to open before the end of the year. Business owner Jill Jones said she originally wanted to open earlier, but building owner Kaiser said changes to the scope and scale of her project required more work.

“There were some changes that required an extension of the timeline,” Kaiser said. “The store will now take up almost the whole first floor.”

“Mr. Kaiser is doing a great job with the building,” Jones said. “It’s a very old structure that needed a lot of work.”

Kaiser declined to say how much money he has spent on the building, but confirmed it is more than $100,000. He said contractors installed a new roof, in addition to removing 19 layers of lead-based paint.

“We cleared out dumpsters of trash,” Kaiser said.

Built in approximately 1855, according to Kaiser, much of the structure had already fallen into disrepair by the time the hamburger shop closed around 1995. When Kaiser acquired the building for $18,000 in 2005, city officials had already declared it condemned.

Kaiser said the structure’s upper floors last served as boarding rooms in 1980, adding they had fallen into considerable disrepair by then.

“It’s exciting to turn the corner with it,” Kaiser said of the endeavor. “Hopefully, in the spring, we can start on the upper floors.”

Kaiser said the project fits well with completed and ongoing downtown Wheeling projects, including The Health Plan headquarters, the Boury Lofts, the Stone Center Lofts, the Flatiron Building and the former Gerrero Music building.

“It wasn’t too many years ago that we would have been excited to see one building in downtown being redeveloped. Now I’m losing track of the number of buildings that developers are either working on or expressing an interest in,” Wheeling Vice Mayor Chad Thalman added. “We are speaking with developers on a regular basis and I’m confident that we will continue to see downtown revitalized.”

Jones already operates a 10,000 square foot operation in Weirton, but said she is glad to be part of the ongoing Friendly City renaissance.