Lininger Reincarnated

CELINA - The James Watson House, a restaurant and bar named after Celina founder James Watson Riley, is expected to open later this year on Main Street.

It will be housed in the first floor of a 140-year-old downtown building that was once facing demolition but has since undergone substantial structural upgrades.

The eatery will serve up steaks, fresh seafood and other classic American foods, beer, cocktails and spirits, all while adding fuel to a downtown revitalization.

Chris and Cassie Campbell, co-owners of the award-winning restaurant The Merchant House in Greenville, will operate The James Watson House, according to building owners Michael Hoying and Phil Moeller.

Hoying, a St. Henry native, is vice president and partner of Dayton-based construction business Brackett Builders. Moeller lives in Maria Stein and owns Moeller Real Estate.   The restaurant and bar alone reflects an investment of $1.13 million and will create 20 full-time equivalent jobs, according to city documents.

"The James Watson House will be the perfect addition to our 202 Main Street Building and the downtown Celina area," Hoying said. "It's a great feeling knowing your partnering with a team that not only delivers a quality product but cares equally about the experience provided to the community."

Hoying and Moeller, who own the the new restaurant and bar along with the Campbells, gave the newspaper a tour of the building this week. The two men will focus their efforts on developing the restaurant before turning their attention to the building's second and third floors that will house commercial, retail or office tenants.

"That's really going to drive almost the design for the rest of the floors so we wanted to do that first," Hoying said of the restaurant, noting the three levels will interact act with and compliment one another.

They're eying a late 2022 opening, citing the difficulty in obtaining construction supplies and kitchen equipment amid ongoing supply chain disruptions.

The James Watson House

The James Watson House aims to offer new-American style foods such as house-aged steaks, fresh seafood, sandwiches, pastas, salads and other American classics, Chris Campbell said.

"Here will be some of those American classics with kind of a James Watson feel to them," he said. "There'll be a twist to it using local ingredients."

The owners also plan for an expansive bar with more than 20 beers on tap, cocktails and spirits.

"You want to be that place where people can go just for after work and maybe for just a bite to eat for lunch but you also want to be that first place people think of when they have a special occasion," Chris Campbell said. "We want to kind of be both. We want to be that place where you can just get a bite. We also want to be that place where you can sit for two hours, have a couple nice cocktails, have a great steak and celebrate a special occasion."

Cassie Campbell said The James Watson House will not only be a place to drink and dine but an experience unto itself informed by the service, ambience and aesthetic. She described the eatery as rustic industrial with modern flourishes.

The owners also took note of the building's "charming exterior, high ceilings and raw material originally found in the space."

The restaurant also will include a large outdoor patio on the north side of the building for dinning and drinking.

A perfect match

When Moeller and Hoying, working as 202 South Main St., LLC, purchased the building, they had in mind offering food service. They sought out the people behind one of their favorite restaurants, The Merchant House in Greenville.

"We've always loved going there, first and foremost. We've always had the vision for the first floor to have a restaurant in use," Hoying said. "Being a customer of theirs and just loving the product they put forth, we reached out actively to them just to see if they had any interest."

Plus, the Merchant House just happened to be located in a historic building with architectural elements and building dimensions similar to the 202 Main Street building, Hoying said.

The Campbells, it turned out, were seeking to branch out.

"Chris and I have since we opened the Merchant House always wanted to do multiple restaurants," Cassie Campbell said, adding the two have more than 40 years of combined restaurant experience. "We've been actively looking at other options for while."

Upon sitting down with Moeller and Hoying, the parties immediately hit it off and the Campbells realized they had found an ideal avenue for taking on another restaurant.

The Merchant House, which the Campbells founded in 2015 with Georgianne and Randy Lambright, is the three-time winner of Ohio Magazine's Best Casual Dinning Award, according to a news release issued by Moeller.

Rich with history

The building at 202 Main Street has formerly operated as an opera house, cigar factory, grocery and Lininger Brothers Big Bargain Hardware. The downtown fixture fell into a state of disrepair over the years.

City safety service director Tom Hitchcock sent a letter dated Feb. 26, 2019, to the former owners notifying them the building was unsafe, citing violations that included interior or exterior walls or other vertical structural elements that list, lean or buckle. The owners were ordered to make necessary repairs to make the building safe or to raze and remove it. Failure to do so would have resulted in the city's assumption of repairs or demolition.

Not wanting to lose a historic downtown building, county officials reached out to the state and learned of the Target of Opportunity Program run through the Ohio Development Services Agency.

County community development director Jared Ebbing on behalf of the county successfully applied for a $250,000 grant. The owners were required to provide a 20% match. The building was rehabilitated.

A new future

With assistance from a $195,000 county revolving loan and other sources, Moeller and Hoying working as 202 South Main St., LLC purchased the building and made interior improvements. They planned to open a food service business on the first floor and mixed use on the upper floors.

"We see the momentum, a lot of positive activity going on whether that's different restaurants, different boutiques," Moeller said. "There's a lot of positive momentum and we want to kind of fit into that."

Though the building is now structurally sound, its three floors must now be refurbished.

"In addition, the team plans to work original parts of what is reported to be one of the first elevators in Mercer County and other building contents into the improvements," the release states.

With  Brackett Builders, Hoying has overseen high profile restorations, among them the Delco Lofts project in downtown Dayton involving a sixth floor corner office and the addition of 133 loft apartments, parking and brewery space in the Water Street District.

"We've done a lot of work in downtown Dayton and Columbus throughout Central Ohio," Hoying said. "I always had a passion for these types of projects so to see them restored, brought back to life, it's just awesome to be a part of it."

The two thanked Celina officials for their help in facilitating the project.

"When you're working with business friendly communities, cities, municipalities, it's going to continue to grow and we're excited to be a part of that," Moeller said.