Construction firm in North Royalton proposes new home on Abbey Road near Ohio 82

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- A North Royalton business owner wants to build an 11,700-square-foot multi-tenant industrial office on the east side of Abbey Road, about a quarter-mile north of Ohio 82.

Thomas Denk, owner of the construction firm Fred W. Denk Co., said he would move his company’s office into the new building. The Denk company was formerly in a multi-tenant building immediately south of the proposed site.

On Jan. 4, the North Royalton Planning Commission gave Denk’s plan preliminary approval while asking him to enhance the proposed building’s façade, said City Planner Ian Russell. Denk will eventually have to return to the commission for final approval.

Denk told cleveland.com last week that he hopes to buy additional property at the front of the new site because the parcel, measuring about 12 acres, is narrow in front. It widens slightly in the rear.

“The plan for the new building is very preliminary,” Denk said. “I can’t tell you much until we come to an agreement with our neighbor for the additional property, but we’re 90 percent likely to go forward with it.”

Denk, through a limited liability company called 12557 Abbey Road LLC, bought the vacant 12-acre parcel in September for $360,000. No other tenants for the proposed building have been signed yet.

Denk said he had owned the multi-tenant property containing his company’s former office just south of the proposed new building, but sold the land in November to Valley Storage. That site, measuring about 7 acres, contains nine warehouse buildings, according to the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office website.

“Our construction office is no longer there,” Denk said. “We transitioned to a post office (box) and we’re working out of my home. I have my equipment scattered in various locations, but I’ve moved some down to the new property.”

According to the Fred W. Denk Co. articles of incorporation, the masonry and construction company was founded in 1964 by Fred Denk, Thomas Denk’s father. The original location was in Parma Heights.

“We helped build houses in Parma, putting in basements and doing brickwork,” Denk says. “We got into industrial and hospital work in later years. I still do small site work.”

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