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Restoring the beauty of Reading, Pa., has been a mission of Alan Shuman’s for nearly 20 years. He founded Shuman De­velopment Group (SDG) in 1994 and quickly set to work purchasing and re­storing historic buildings throughout the city. Some of the company’s first projects included large single-family homes built around the turn of the century and converted to multi-unit apartment buildings.

By 1997, SDG began work on its first commercial building – the Baer Build­ing, which was built in 1870 by George Baer, president of the Reading Railroad. SDG Purchased the structure weeks before it was slated for demolition and revitalized it to become a treasured symbol of the city. 

Focused exclusively on large-scale comm­­ercial structures – particularly those with 50,000 or more square feet – Shuman Development has become synonymous with thoughtful and skilled restoration throughout Reading.

Old to New

The success of SDG is based on some simple elements. “I love historic architecture,” states Alan Shuman, president of Shuman Development Group. “And, this is our hometown; we want to do what we can to make it beautiful.”

 SDG is the city’s only for-profit company that is dedicated to restoring Read­ing and the historic buildings found there. Most recently, the company completed two large-scale projects that have made a huge impact on the revitalization of the city’s downtown district.

The M&T Bank regional headquarters, located at 50 North 5th Street, was in need of more repairs than the past own­ers were willing to pay. Com­pli­cat­ing matters, the building’s tenants needed only half of the building’s 58,000 square feet of office space.

 SDG purchased the 45-year-old building in 2007 and quickly recognized some outstanding hurdles. The early 1960s architecture of the M&T Bank building clashed within the Callowhill Historic District of Reading. What’s more, the structure’s exterior panels had discolored and the building’s interior had not been maintained properly.

With a budget of $3 million, SDG got to work “stripping off the skin,” as Shuman recalls.

 “We gutted each floor back to bare, open areas as if it were new construction. We then re-skinned the exterior of the building with high-performance black glass. We installed new mechanicals and refit each floor to fit the new tenants’ specifications.

“Additionally, we installed a new solar array system on the roof – the first of its kind to be installed on an office building in the city of Reading.”

The M&T Bank building project was finished in 2010, and is an eye-catching glass structure in Reading’s historic downtown district. SDG took such care in its work with the project that the company currently calls the modernized M&T Bank building its home.

According to Shuman, his company also is responsible for the first new shopp­ing center project in Reading in more than 30 years. “For the 810 Oley Street project, we completely gutted two existing buildings totaling 60,000 square feet, and we constructed a new 25,000-square-foot building,” he says.

The two existing buildings were made of poured-in-place concrete, but had been vacant for years and vandals had stolen all of the structure’s mechanical elements.

“We started with laying new lines from the street and went on from there, installing a completely new interior,” Shuman continues. “We also installed a 235-panel solar array, which is the largest in Reading.”

With a budget of $9 million and an expected completion date of June 2011, the 810 Oley Street project is the first in which SDG has constructed a new build­ing instead of gutting and restoring an existing structure.

Built to Last

Since 1994, SDG has applied its unique expertise to restoring historic Reading. “We go straight in from the beginning with the goal of doing a first-class renovation project,” Shuman says. “We don’t look at the cost in the same way other companies do.

“If something costs an extra half-million dollars to do it right – even though it may not justify itself on a return basis – we’ll spend the money and do it, because that’s the way it’s supposed to be done.”

For SDG, doing the job right requires taking an honest assessment of a project. “We’ll go in and replace cooling, heating and ventilation systems and in­stall elevators,” Shuman explains. “We’ll completely gut plumbing systems and replace it with more efficient lines.

“And, the same goes for electric systems. Ess­en­tially, we do away with all the nasty, half-hearted attempts people have made along the years at fixing these beau­tiful buildings.”