A developer has completed an office condominium project in east Columbia that features a twist -- the condos are next to a restored 19th century house.

The project has left historical preservationists -- who opposed it on the grounds that it would be an inappropriate use of a historic area -- with mixed feelings.

Fred Dorsey, vice president of Preservation Howard County, said this week that, while he is glad to see that D. Ronald Brasher restored the mansion, he believes the neighboring office project to be an "eye sore" that dominates and detracts from the house.

Brasher, who owns Columbia-based Brasher Design Inc., which completed the project, counters that he could not have funded the house's $300,000 renovation without developing and selling the offices, adding that the $9 million project, which is called Woodlands, provides unique private and secluded office space in the county.

"We were able to save a historic house," Brasher said in a May 30 interview about Woodlands. "Nobody else was going to do it."

Brasher is selling the office space for $275 per square foot, while he hopes to sell the mansion for $1.3 million for use as a professional office, hotel, restaurant or financial institution, according to Rob Freedman, a leasing agent with Corridor Reznick, the real estate firm that is handling the sale of the project.

Brasher has slated a Tuesday, June 10 opening for the project.

Major renovations were done

Preservation Howard County, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving historic buildings in the county, had placed the Woodlawn mansion on its 2006 list of the county's top 10 endangered historical sites.

The preservationists believe the stone stucco mansion is significant because it has a design that reflects a transition between Greek Revival and Italian styles. The home once was owned by Henry Howard Owings, a prominent landowner, farmer and Judge of the Orphan's Court.

Brasher bought the property in February 2000 and since then he and the members of Preservation Howard County, along with historians and county officials, have discussed ways to develop the property without sullying its historical significance, he said.

After the County Council rezoned the property to allow commercial development there in 2005, Brasher submitted plans to build Woodlands.

In 2006, Brasher upset some preservationists by cutting down several 200-year-old trees on the property, he said, adding that he cut the trees because they were hollow and might have fallen on the mansion.

To renovate the 5,000-square-foot mansion, workers scraped plaster off walls, sanded windows and doors and upgraded the house's electrical system. The two-story house also contains a loft and furnished basement.

The firm has sold only 25 percent of the office space due, in part, by a slowing economy, and does not yet have a solid offer on the mansion, Brasher said, adding that several engineering and law firms have expressed interest in the historic house.

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