Like many homeowners, Jason and Jenny Armold knew they had built a lot of equity in their home. But when the couple would sit down to talk about the future, a new kitchen or dream vacation wasn’t top of mind like you might expect. The Armolds wanted to invest in their community. They wanted to buy a building in the City of Rensselaer.
And buy a building they did…all 5,000 square feet of it! Situated at the corner of Van Rensselaer and Harrison St, Jason believes it is “the best location in the city.”
The Armolds used a home equity line of credit to make the purchase this last December and got to work right away. “Jenny and I have the skills to do a lot of the renovations ourselves; we’ve tried to use local contractors for the rest,” shared Jason. In just four months’ time, they’ve been able to replace the HVAC, reframe walls, and drywall. They have just rented the first section of the building to a local martial arts studio who was looking to expand. Also in the works…
- A “micro-venue” for the community to rent for meetings and special celebrations.
- The expansion of Jenny’s dog grooming business, Biscuit and a Bath.
- A new personal endeavor, the “Brick Street Ice Cream Parlor”, and
- space for potentially 2-3 more local businesses.
Jason and Jenny Armold, and their adorable Old English Sheep Dog Olive, outside of the building’s space that will eventually be home to the new Brick Street Ice Cream Parlor.
“Jenny and I are entrepreneurs. Of course we want to make money, but we also want to invest in our community. This may sound corny, but we want to leave a legacy [beyond our kids and grandkids] in our hometown. We want to help the community by creating affordable spaces for small business owners.”
As the City undergoes the replacement of the brick streets outside their front door, the Armolds will be working hard to finish the renovations inside 128-130 S Van Rensselaer. Jason indicated, “We want to keep going.” Once this building is renovated, we plan to convert the loan balance into a mortgage so we can reuse the home equity line to purchase another Rensselaer building.
“If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to take risks and put some skin in the game,” Jason acknowledges. “Alliance made it easy to use the equity in our home to follow our dream. The process was quick and easy. We like working with a small bank who is focused on our community.”
