EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bricks & Mortar Report provides updates on major construction projects in Chenango County.

Former Corner Cigar building:
• The new owners of the former Corner Cigar store on North Broad St. in Norwich have begun cleaning out the space and entertaining contractors’ estimates for renovations.
• Norwich native and local lawyer Adam Spence said he purchased the downtown building to eventually house his office, but he has yet to settle on a plan for the remaining two floors of the building.
• “Our first task is to get the place tightened up,” he said. “The building’s roof leaks and the windows need replacing ... We are quite a ways away from being able to put a date on when the work will be finished.”

Chenango Memorial Hospital, Norwich:
• A new color scheme and ceiling and flooring patterns were revealed when barriers came down last week on the first renovated section of Chenango Memorial Hospital’s third floor.
• CMH administrators began the $800,000 facelift of its 5,371 square foot med/surg unit in mid September. The project, which is expected to be completed in in March, is designed to reduce travel time from the nurses’ station to the patient, improve visibility between nurses and patients, and improve family access to providers.
• The completed area includes a utility room, an equipment storage area and an electrical room.
• Workers will progress immediately to the next section of the project which will include creating a new nurses’ station, secretarial area and meds room. This part of the project will take until the end of the year.
• Meanwhile, contractors will replace ceiling tiles and refinish the walls from the elevators by the Intensive Care Unit and continue halfway up the east corridor. Most of this work will take place at night to allow free access of the hallway for visitors during the day. New floors will be installed in the spring.

Housing Starts (modular, double wide and stick built):
• Chenango County Codes Enforcement office reported five housing starts in October, one each in the towns of Plymouth, Pharsalia, Smithville and Preston, and one in the Village of Afton.

NBT Bank, N.A.:
• NBT Bank’s Managed Assets Department will move across Eaton Avenue once renovations at the former Hamilton House furniture store are completed. In late October, a group of local contractors began to transform about half of the 10,000 square feet of space into offices for 30 employees.
• An open area created after an adjacent house was demolished last week will become a parking lot with 25 spaces.
• “We were growing at a pace where we were running out of space in the main building,” Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer Joseph Stagliano said. The executive said the move would “open up opportunities” for the bank’s continued growth. Twenty-five employees will move over initially.
• NBT’s collections, purchasing and facilities departments were stationed in the Hamilton House previously. They were consolidated back into the main campus in 2002.
• Stagliano said the former carriage house’s architectural-style would mirror the surrounding structures on South Broad Street.
• The project is slated to be completed Dec. 31.