When: Lancaster City Council committee meeting, held virtually, May 11.
What happened: Sticking with the city Historical Commissionâs recommendation, Council unanimously rejected a proposal to convert a historic tobacco warehouse at 437 W. Grant St. into seven condos. Owner Stonecrest Builders had hoped to add two floors and planned to sell the top one as a single condo for around $1 million and the six below for between $500,000 and $800,000 each. The city Historical Commission decided the size of the proposed addition would overwhelm the original warehouse.
History: The empty, two-story building is the remaining half of what had been a pair of tobacco warehouses built in 1895 by RK Schnader & Sons after a cigar factory there was demolished, according to a city report. The Schnader family also had a three-story tobacco warehouse nearby, which is now home to Thistle Finch Distillery. Stonecrestâs warehouse had been used in the 1980s by The Red Cross and years before by Ke