Changes coming to Donkey

According to the variance, four apartments will be constructed within the building with 16 total tenants and zero on-site parking spaces but 16 leased parking spaces located 280 feet from the lot. Pyle has also said that plans include a second-floor open-air patio for Donkey customers.

“We just bought the building that Donkey is located in,” Pyle told the zoning board. “We’ve been in that location for nine years now. The long and short of it is that we need to put something upstairs to pay for the huge mortgage that we have now.”

Pyle said that he inherited a small apartment in the back of the building that is pretty run down at this point.

“Almost the whole second floor is unused,” he said. “There’s a small space that Minuteman Press uses, and they’ve agreed to move downstairs so that we can start a building project up there.”

He said that the upstairs, which looks like a storage area, has been unoccupied at least the whole time Donkey has been located there.

“We desire to significantly improve the building by building four apartments on the second floor for 16 residents by bringing the entire building up to current fire, building and housing codes,” he said. “The building will be safer and contribute to the economic vitality of uptown Athens.”

He said that currently the building has no sprinkler system, and by doing this project a system will be installed, including both in Donkey itself and the Minuteman Press location.

In order to provide the necessary parking, Pyle said, he has executed a five-year lease with Cranberry Row to use its parking lot at 26 N. Congress St., which is behind the People’s Bank building.

Pyle cited similar variances that have been approved by the zoning board in the past, including one last year for People’s Bank itself in the same location when apartments were put in above it.

“Residential rentals are the best use of the second-floor space at 17 W. Washington for justifying the desire to renovate it,” Pyle said. “Without the board’s approval for parking variance, the development cannot be pursued and half of the building would remain undeveloped.”

Pyle said that the upstairs of the building is between 4,000 and 4,500 square feet.

Above where Minuteman Press is located, Pyle said Wednesday, is an area that matches that above Donkey.

“Above Minuteman Press is a space, and that would connect on the second floor to the space that we have now on our part of the building,” he said. “And then we would just blow out the walls on the front and on the side. So it would have a roof over it, but it would basically be an open-air patio.”

He said the apartments themselves will have four bedrooms and two bathrooms each, as well as living room areas and kitchens.

“We’re going to try to make them really nice, and try to make them so they’re not overpriced,” he said.

Right now, construction is slated to begin in August and to be completed in April 2012 so that residents can move in that May, he said. Construction will also include a new office in Donkey, he said.

With a 10-year anniversary coming up next year, he said, Donkey would like to have everything complete for an event around that time.

The board approved the variance with a vote of 3-2.