Norwich — The Norwich Community Development Corp. hopes to try again in January to celebrate the grand opening of its new Foundry 66 shared workspace facility at 66 Franklin St. after all repairs are completed from the fire that damaged the facility just one day after its grand opening in October.

NCDC hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 14. But the next day, an accidental fire that started with an overheated light bulb in an attic crawlspace caused extensive smoke and water damage to the newly renovated office space, which formerly housed the Norwich Bulletin.

NCDC President Robert Mills estimated the total damage to be about $130,000 — about $105,000 in lost equipment, furniture, marketing materials and supplies, and another $25,000 in construction costs to repair the damage.

New furniture, carpeting, drywall and equipment mainly in the left side of the facility were damaged and one new office tenant, Yoga-Thai Massage, Balance, Growth Being LLC, owned by John Benbow, was displaced.

Mills gave an update Thursday morning to the NCDC Board of Directors at its first meeting since the fire. Mills said recovery has been going as smoothly as can be expected. Service Master arrived within hours of the fire and spent three weeks cleaning smoke and water damage. Air quality tests show the building is clean.

Mills said the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut has expressed interest in hosting a new open house for Foundry 66 in January, after repairs are completed and the holidays are over.

Partial insurance assessments payments already are in hand, and more meetings with officials from Philadelphia Insurance are planned for reimbursements of the estimated business lost due to the fire, Mills said. The Nutmeg Companies construction firm has estimated repairs will take about a week. New office partitions are expected to arrive Dec. 20.

Mills said NCDC's only cost for fire damage will be the $1,000 deductible. Officials still are working on estimates of the business losses, including the $2,000 per month cost to retain rent on NCDC's former office complex at 77 Main St., where the massage business has been operating since the fire, Mills said.

But the intangible loss will be harder to determine, Mills said.

“The lion's share of the loss is lost momentum,” he told the board.

Foundry 66 offers space and business services for start-up and small businesses. Participants can rent full office space, with shared business services, such as copiers, Wi-Fi and meeting space, or they can rent flex desk space or sign up for use of the common lounge area, with Wi-Fi and business services included in what the agency terms “gym membership”-style fees.

Board Chairman Robert Buckley said NCDC anticipated more of a demand for the open lounge space, but so far, businesses are more interested in renting office space or cubicle space. That might entail reorganizing the facility to accommodate those requests, Buckley said.

Thus far, seven offices are filled and three clients have signed up for desk space and four have committed to using the open space area, said Miria Toth, NCDC marketing director.

c.bessette@theday.com