Gibson plans to construct a six unit brick office/condo building at the corner of North Walnut and Jefferson streets. An unoccupied house located at 11 North Walnut Street was torn down to make way for the construction of the new building, which will consist of a one floor structure featuring office/ condos sized at 840 square feet and up.

Rather than being an office that is leased, the office/condo will be owned by the occupying businesses. The benefit of the office/condo concept is that people can own their own work space and benefit from tax breaks, interest and the value of the office/condo as it appreciates in price.

"The decision to build this was based on the four or five calls I receive per month from individuals who are looking for offices under 1,000 square feet, and in Englewood there is nothing like this available," said Gibson. "There is a great market for this kind of of office space.

That's the trend today. More and more people who are working out of their homes would opt to work in a commercial building if these smaller sized offices were available."

Construction of the office/condo building is scheduled to begin Nov. 1, if all goes well, with a target completion date of April 1997. Although he has no projected cost for the building, Gibson said it be a sizable investment.

The parking lot for the structure will be located on the west side the property with the entrance on Jefferson Street.

"Ray tells us that we have shortage of office space," said Englewood Development Director Jeff Bothwell. "He's going to build some small offices. My feeling is that small offices have the chance of growing into larger offices and we love to see businesses grow in the city."