Hudson & Essex Restaurant and Winery remains on track despite storage building mishap

MANSFIELD — The Hudson & Essex Restaurant and Winery still plans to open soon, despite a collapse to a storage building on the site, according to Cindy Taylor, a representative of the project. 

A statement released Thursday morning detailed the collapse of a storage building on the site. No one was hurt Wednesday when the section of the building that faces North Franklin Street collapsed. The storage building on the site of the former home of the National Electric Supply at 51 E. 4th St, suffered damage near the newly identified caverns.

“Crews were working on installing a retaining wall for the project. The particular section of this wall was located near the foundation of an existing building that is more than 100 years old,” Adena noted in a statement. “As per procedure, the excavation was evaluated based visual inspections and on previous deep excavations on the project. The excavation took place and held for a period of time. At some point the structure of the existing wall gave way and slid into the excavation. The area was identified as an area to be aware of and no workers were in the area at the time of the failure.

“The building that was damaged was not part of the historic restaurant and was just being used for storage. There was no end use set for the building other than storage at this time. The area will be cleaned up and will not impact the schedule or work at the restaurant.

“Adena Corporation is acting as the Construction Manager on this project.”

The building’s owner, Rick Taylor, plans to move his Cypress Winery to the building and create a restaurant called, Hudson and Essex, as an homage to the history of the building, used originally as a car dealership that sold Hudson and Essex automobiles.

Taylor purchased the site, which included several structures, in January from National Electric Supply Co. It was once used to sell cars in the 1920s at what was then The Hieber Motor Co.

The main building, Taylor said, is planned to be two-story upscale restaurant downtown that includes 14,400 square feet of dining and drinking pleasure. It will include a deli and new outdoor eating/live entertainment area.

The main restaurant will seat about 80 people, though the total capacity of the facility, including the winery and outdoor area will likely hold about 200, Taylor said in August.