A historic building in downtown Harrisonburg that used to be a hub for farmers in the Valley will soon be a hub for a very different crowd.

Locals might be familiar with the Wetsel Seed complex, a brick building sitting next to train tracks at 128 W. Market St.

The building, which displays the Wetsel Seed name in large letters on the exterior, will soon be transformed into the Harrisonburg Innovation Hub — a co-working center with offices and other space available for rent.

HIH LCC bought the building for $2.88 million. The deal for the property closed on Oct. 21. It is 25,648 square feet and has three floors, three elevators and a parking lot.

Construction has not been scheduled yet, but Hannah Cooper, director of Harrisonburg Innovation Hub, said the company plans to start by December or January.

Peter Denbigh, founder of Harrisonburg Innovation Hub, said the space will open sometime in 2023.

The multimillion-dollar renovation will add a third floor to the Market Street wing. Denbigh said the addition will have slanted glass to create a modern look and entice people inside.

The hub is working with Harrisonburg firm Eugene Stoltzfus Architects to preserve what they can of the building’s historic features.

The neon sign and dust collectors outside the buildings will stay, Denbigh said. The company is debating whether to keep the “Wetsel Seed” writing on the exterior. Either way, there will be signage for the hub.

“It’ll be familiar but new, I guess is a good way to put it,” Denbigh said.

Several businesses have cycled through the building over the years — one of the most notable being Union Station Restaurant and Bar, which ran from 2010 to 2021. Boutiques, vape stores and a 3-D print shop also operated out of the building in the last 10 years.

The inside layout of the building won’t change much, Denbigh said. There will be around 60 private offices, conference and focus rooms, an audio-visual room and a rooftop deck.

Denbigh said he hopes the hub welcomes people to the downtown, as visitors continue on to neighboring businesses such as Magpie Diner and Sage Bird Ciderworks.

Denbigh is the founder of HIH, which has a handful of members and investors. The company also owns and operates the Staunton Innovation Hub. While the two hubs will work independently, operations may look similar.

The Staunton Innovation Hub opened in two phases during 2018 and 2020. The property is about 30,000 square feet over two buildings that share a parking lot.

The Staunton Innovation Hub works with about 110 businesses on a regular basis, Denbigh said.

“We’ve got, you know, entrepreneurs, freelance writers, marketing folks, we have Dan Bonner announcing ACC basketball games on our third floor remotely,” Cooper said.

When professionals work in a shared space, conversations naturally flow and the potential for collaboration is higher, Denbigh said.

“The way the building will be designed in Harrisonburg is to encourage serendipity,” Denbigh said. “There will be one common break room, etc., that allow people to come into each other’s moment and [say], ‘Hey, how are you doing today?’”

The company worked with city real estate firm Cottonwood Associates to locate and purchase the building. The real estate process took about a year, Cooper and Denbigh said.

While they don’t have rental prices planned yet, the hub will not be charging “New York City rates,” Denbigh said, as its mission is to reduce barriers to innovation.

“Most of our spaces within this building are month-to-month commitments, because if you’re starting something you don’t know where you’re going to be in four months,” Denbigh said.

The company wanted to find a spot downtown for the hub.

“We become a little bit of an economic engine as a result, because you have all these businesses operating here, and they have to shop places, they have to eat places, they have to live places,” Denbigh said.

Harrisonburg Innovation Hub will eventually hire a community manager and marketing manager, Denbigh said. The company will try to pull candidates from the local community for the positions.

Denbigh, 42, said he went to James Madison University in 1998 and lived in Harrisonburg until 2010.

The local colleges and universities, the city’s downtown and the strength of the Harrisonburg Economic Development Department attracted HIH to Harrisonburg.

The close proximity between Staunton and Harrisonburg also played a role, Cooper said.

“What’s cool about this property is the prior owners took really good care of it during the renovation,” Denbigh said, “... and so our plans are to take the great structure that they’ve put together and turn it into this high-tech feeling.”

The Wetsel Seed building was last renovated in 2010. Sirena and Cassandra Baker, owners of the former Union Station Restaurant and Bar, purchased the building in 2008 and spent two years fixing it up.

The restaurant closed in 2021, and HIH purchased the building from the Baker family.

“It really is a strategically located building in our downtown, and I look forward to working with the new owners and seeing a wonderful project ahead,” said Brian Shull, Harrisonburg’s director of economic development

Earlier this year, Harrisonburg was selected to participate in a remote workers assessment through the Virginia Main Street Work from Home Pilot project, launched by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

Andrea Dono, executive director of Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, said the hub will help attract remote workers and benefit that program.

“This is definitely going to be something that advances what we hope could be another selling point for people coming to Harrisonburg,” Dono said.

The Wetsel Seed building was built in 1935 and helped the Wetsel Seed Co., originally started by Daniel M. Wetsel and his son Arnold Wetsel, become a part of the Rockingham County agricultural economy.

The two cultivated and sold strains of corn.

“Our communities grow and change over time and there’s always ways to find that historic buildings can grow and change over time,” Dono said.