When Mark and Phoebe Davenport were in Hutchinson about a year ago looking at the Plaza Towers and Leon Apartments buildings, which they eventually purchased, they also took a tour of the historic Hoke Building a block to the south.
Most of the four-story building, erected in 1910 as a downtown office building, has been vacant for more than 50 years and it shows, with crumbling plaster ceilings, grime-coated floors and deteriorating plywood in the windows.
“Mark stumbled across the listing,” Phoebe said. “At the time, we felt like it was more than we could bite off.”
But building owner and Realtor Jim Davis, who bought the building in 2004 as an investment property and got it listed in 2011 on both the state and national register of historic places, circled back.