Keep Wimberley Beautiful awarded Buck Baccus the Keep Wimberley Beautiful Award for his work around the revitalization of the Lumberyard.
The award is given quarterly to citizens for their work in improving and beautifying their storefronts or properties.
In September, the award was last given to Candace and Willis Rothelle along with Lauren and Everett Robuck who own Ceremony Botanical Gardens for their work improving the area in front of their shop on the Square.
The decision to give Baccus the Keep Wimberley Beautiful Award was the work to improve the area known as the Lumberyard into an attractive storefront property both architecturally and with significant landscaping. The Lumberyard currently houses Community Pizza & Beer Garden, Mad Rooster’s Liquor Beer and Wines, KWVH Radio Station, Annie James Boutique, Vintage Lily Boutique, Christi’s Art Gallery and many more.
“When he purchased the area,” Keep Wimberley Beautiful president Carol Scheel said. “He started making many improvements. The beautification of that area is such an addition to that neighborhood and all of Wimberley. The sidewalk tourists not only walk around, they stay in the Square, but some venture out down Old Kyle Road and to Martha Knies Park. When they see the beatification of his area (Lumberyard), they keep on coming and very often they end up at the pizza place, the liquor store or the radio station. All that beautification has attracted so many visitors to that end of Wimberley.”
Maintaining the Lumberyard is quite a bit of work to do, but the area is in good hands under the watchful eye of Greyson and Garrett Fine.
“As you can imagine, there is a lot of work to do,” Baccus said. “Trash has to be empty out everyday, we blow the property, on and on. We were lucky enough to get Greyson and his brother. They come out and help us keep the place clean and it’s a good fit for us.”
Winning the Keep Wimberley Beautiful Award was a great appreciation for Baccus considering the time and effort spent on the Lumberyard.
“It means a lot,” Baccus said. “We spent an enormous amount of time, energy and money on one building that we had, but maintaining it… It takes a lot of time and effort to do that too. When you get an award like that it’s like ‘Hey we see and value what you did’ and I appreciate that.”
The Lumberyard, named after the former lumber yard that occupied the property for decades, was in need of desperate repairs when Baccus bought the property.
“You almost had to rebuild the building,” Baccus said. “What we did here, we poured a slab underneath it, kept the walls in place, put a brand new roof on, put in new electrical and plumbing, new heating and air conditioning, the whole thing. It’s obviously not cheap, but you have so many things you have to deal with… Not many people know this, (the sidewalk) has to be a certain slope, because if it’s not it is not ADA accessible. On top of that people would park to go downtown and they would have to go behind the cars and walk into the street so we had to provide an ADA accessible route, which I’m all for.”
But as the repairs came, the costs began to pile up.
“The property was worn out and tired,” Baccus said. “It needed a little bit of love, and if you’ve heard of the expression ‘pull a thread on a sweater’, that is what it is all about. The building was so dilapidated that we could have left it alone, but then you ask yourself ‘Do you live with that? Or Do I start and try to fix those things?’ When you try and fix those problems, it’s now ‘Oh we have to get a new roof, I’ve got to do air conditioning, I’ve got to do electrical’ and those things keep piling up. As the price tag gets bigger, you have to pay attention to what (businesses are) going to be there, because I want to make sure that I’ve got a good (land use) for the money I’m about to spend. There are certain uses that can pay more money, and a restaurant is one of them. We did not build this thinking we were going to do Community Pizza, it was quite frankly my good fortune to run into Michael and Morgan McCreas”.
In addition to the cost of repairs, the Hill Country itself provided another challenge.
“One of the biggest challenges was topography,” Baccus said. “In Texas, if you spend more than $50,000 you are required to pass certain accessibility standards. Which means you have to have handicap parking, people have to make it here in a safe manner, and they have to make it to all parts of the building… The slopes you see and the routes you see, I cannot tell how much of a challenge that was.”
While the majority of the locals were open to the restoration of the Lumberyard and what they have to offer, there were still a few detractors.
“A lot of people have treated us well,’ Baccus said. “But there is a faction in town that doesn’t want change… but things change and I think we tried to do something that fit in with the spirit of Wimberley. I’m a commercial real estate guy, and I could have brought in Starbucks. But I wouldn’t dare bring Starbucks here, because that is not what our community wants. Some people don’t want a bar/restaurant. I get and understand that, but I think a large portion of our community enjoys a large portion of what we have here.”
“It’s an interesting part of the Wimberley story.,” Baccus continued. “We don’t want Tractor Supply to move in across the street and build a new building, but instead we want smaller local businesses to come in and use the space to offer interesting stuff for us.”
At the end of the day, Baccus hopes to give Wimberley small businesses a glimmer of what they can do in spite of the looming corporations that want in on the Wimberley businesses.
“It is what makes Wimberley so special,” Baccus said. “I don’t know where you go to see a community like Wimberley where there is business and prosperity. The big corporations want a piece of that and Starbucks is a great example of that. I truly hope that Wimberley, city, staff, and community, keeps it local and small businesses and keeps it unique and special, and I think that is going to be one of the biggest challenges we face.”
