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Building off the success of a renovation completed last summer, the owners of the historic Rinehart Building on North Williams Avenue are looking to expand the property’s footprint.

The Tim Brown Co. is planning to construct a 2,500-square-foot annex building on a vacant, narrow lot next door to the Rinehart Building (at 3041 N. Williams Ave). The approximately $425,000 project would create an additional ground-floor retail/live-work space, and one 1,400-square-foot apartment unit split between two upper levels.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Rinehart Building was once home to the Cleo-Lillian Social Club. The club was an important venue for the African-American community for many years. But by the time the father and son team of Tim and Brandon Brown picked the building up in 2011, it was vacant and had fallen into disrepair.

After an extensive renovation, the building now is home to a wine bar called “Wine up on Williams” and a handful of apartment units. Numerous retail tenants were interested in using the adjacent lot for outdoor seating, but given the high level of interest Brandon Brown received in the building, he said he knew it had the potential for a higher and better use.

“The apartments leased in pretty much a day,” he said. “The first four people I showed took those apartments, and the fifth went the next day … The retail portions were both pre-leased. I would say that we were extremely happy with the way those spaces leased up.”

Brown has already arranged a construction loan for the new project through Columbia Credit Union, which also financed the Rinehart Building renovation. The project’s architect is COLAB Architecture, which has scheduled an early assistance meeting with Bureau of Development Services later this week. Construction shouldn’t be far behind, according to Brown.

“Those spaces are available,” he said. “We haven’t even begun to lease (but) we’re looking for an interesting tenant for the first floor.”