WESTFIELD — With the restoration of the exterior of Lambson Furniture at 89 Elm St. nearing completion, Eugene Borowski Jr. of Beyond Builders will be starting the apartments on the third and fourth floors, and then installing a restaurant kitchen on the first floor of the building, as his vision for “Lambson Square” continues to expand.

Lambson Square will include both the four-story 1868 Lambson building and the connected two-story building at 81-83 Elm St., which most recently housed Bentley Billiards, as well as the 15-space parking area in the rear that had electric charging spaces installed by the city. Borowski said he spent the first year with the property settling eminent domain questions on the parking area, which the city had recently improved.

Borowski said the Lambson will also encompass the outdoor stage he built for open mic nights, along with concrete tables and chairs with chess- and checkerboard tops that he envisions in the sidewalk area between the parking lots.

Borowski said he considers the building, which he bought in 2019 for $275,000, a community effort, due to the Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds the city has invested in historical preservation, on top of the $480,000 he has put in since its purchase.

The City Council approved an additional $100,000 in CPA funds recommended by the Community Preservation Commission (CPC) last month to restore two additional exterior walls at 89 Elm St. Earlier, the CPC had given $250,000 to restore the visible exterior walls along Elm and Thomas streets for a historical designation, but the Massachusetts Historical Society said all four exterior walls had to be restored. Borowski said he will retain the painted Lambson Furniture sign on the southern exterior.

The restoration of the Italianate exterior has been done with painstaking care. The bricks were damaged from salt; Borowski took them out and put them back by hand, replacing 300 to 400 on the Thomas Street side alone.

For the second-floor windows currently being restored for office space, he replaced 112 pieces of plate glass, adding that the picture windows at the front of the second floor on Elm Street were installed in 1910. The original exterior granite corners are in place on Elm Street, and Borowski found photos of the granite steps at the Elm Street entrance, which he has dug out and will reuse.

Borowski said the “bones” of the building are in good shape.

“It’s amazing, the condition of the building,” he said, calling it structurally sound. The brick walls are three feet thick, and the basement walls, five feet thick. It already had a new roof and a working sprinkler system when he purchased it.

“I have the canvas, all I have to do is paint,” Borowski said, adding that building restoration is his specialty, citing Fitzwilly’s Restaurant in Northampton as one example of his work.

Borowski envisions the first floor of both buildings, 89 Elm and 81-83 Elm, as restaurants, bars, music and entertainment space. In the interior entrance to 89 Elm St., which will be restored with the original maple doors, Borowski is installing a chandelier from the old Union Station in Northampton, which he described as dating from the 1800s and having lead crystals.

He also has the full kitchen and furniture from the Sierra Grill restaurant in Northampton, which closed a few years ago.

Borowski said it could become event space, and he can envision having weddings and other grand occasions there. He has already obtained the liquor license which was grandfathered to the property.

The first floor of the 81-83 Elm St. two-story building extends to the rear, and Borowski imagines a living garden on a deck on the roof of the extended building with a live-in courtyard.

On the third floor he will be building three one-bedroom and four studio apartments, one of which will be a handicap-accessible apartment, which will have a cast-iron balcony facing the rear of the building and Lambson Square. The fourth floor will have five luxury apartments — three one-bedroom, and two two-bedroom.

Borowski’s vision is shared and being developed by project manager Sidney Hubble, his long-time collaborator both in the United States and abroad, who worked with Borowski on missions in Qatar and Afghanistan. Hubble lives in Colorado, and works for CH2M Jacobs. Also on the team are his father Eugene Borowski Sr., in finance, and his girlfriend Leslie Gross.

Over the phone, Hubble said he and Borowski met on a job in Qatar, where they worked together for a couple of years on the largest air base in the Middle East and North Africa in a mission for the U.S. Air Force. They then volunteered to go to Afghanistan several years later to support that mission. He said Borowski has been a master builder his whole life and can do anything.

Hubble said from just the little bit of research he’s done, the Lambson building was large for its day and anchored Elm Street.

“It has watched over the history of Westfield for a long time, and has a wonderful story arc. The building itself, and the person who built it,” he said, adding that he saw an old photo from the early 1890s showing the city’s cobblestone streets, and the Lambson building in the background.

Hubble said the next story arc will be of the building being redeveloped, repurposed and reinvigorating downtown Westfield, and put back the way it was, as the hub of the community. He said the Lambson Square, the stage which has brought people downtown, its proximity to the transit station and the Gaslight District are all a part of the story.

Another part of the story is the original hydraulic elevator which went up to the third floor of the building, powered by water pressure from city water mains. The elevator, which Borowski found in the basement, was made by the Washburn shops at Worcester Polytechnic Institute; manufactured and designed in Massachusetts, and patented in 1876 and 1878.

Dr. Lee Gray from the University of North Carolina, a world expert on elevators, has shown interest in its early design and execution as a very early prototype and example of the industrial revolution, as have people in Boston.

The elevator still works, but can’t be used because its cable shutoff system no longer meets building codes. Borowski wants to take the original wooden cab and fit it inside a modern elevator mechanism.

Hubble sees the top two floors of the building as perfect for residences, with convenient parking in the rear. He said the second floor is well suited to shopping or an office — perhaps a shared, coworking office. Office use will be contingent on hooking up to the Whip City Fiber broadband network, he said.

The bottom floor, which Hubble said will be internally connected to the building next door which is already set up for a restaurant, will be for weddings, balls and other fancy evening events. “It’s an elegant space. I see it in my mind’s eye as Victorian,” he said.

“Gene likes to build, I like to plan,” Hubble added. “We made a good combination. Plus, you have several people who are really into bouncing ideas off each other, you both get what you’re looking for: how do we put things back best where it reinvigorates downtown Westfield and the community.”