NEW! Click photo to view additional photos
	Photo by Sam Yu The old Lippart Cabinet Co. building on South East Street will be the home of the new Tourism Council of Frederick County visitors center. In the background is the new Frederick County Public Schools headquarters building, which is under construction.

The proposed building will serve as the local visitor center for Frederick and Frederick County, and house the offices of the Tourism Council of Frederick County. They will relocate from the current location at 19 E. Church St. in Frederick .

John Fieseler, the tourism council's executive director, said the completed building will have space to show an orientation film and present exhibits and displays. Additionally, the center will better accommodate group tours by providing adequate restrooms.

The building will have room for a group to gather indoors while reassembling before boarding a bus.

"The goal was to have a facility that could serve as the tourist information center about local, regional and statewide offerings of interest to visitors," Fieseler said.

The center will be located at the southwest corner of Commerce and South East streets in Frederick . It will offer an example of rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of a 105-year-old vacant warehouse.

The building will provide public access to a historic industrial structure that is a contributing resource to the Frederick Historic District, providing interpretation of the relationship between manufacturing and transportation.

Fieseler said the site capitalizes on Frederick 's location at the hub of a network of highways that fan out like the spokes of a wheel, including the National Scenic Byways that pass through Frederick .

Through these byways, the project is linked to the C&O Canal Route, the Catoctin Mountain Loop and the Atlantic to Appalachians State Scenic byways.

"Establishing a tourist center at this location will help maximize the return on the sizable investment by the state and local governments in this initiative," Fieseler said.

The city is building a 500-plus-space parking garage near the project site, and a bus loading/unloading area will be provided along East Street at the entrance to the center.

By locating the proposed tourist center across the street from the MARC station and the Frederick County TransIt Services connecting hub, visitors will be provided with options for intermodal connections, Fieseler said.

The tourism council began searching in early 2000 for a site along the proposed extension of East Street in Frederick to a planned new interchange on I-70.

The tourism council is proud of its plan to recycle and reuse a vacant historic structure on a Brownfields site, Fieseler said.

Brownfields are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use. Some early concepts for the redevelopment of the area called for this project building to be razed, Fieseler said.