BUCYRUS - Tom Manely has a lot of plans for the former Swan Rubber Co.building on East Mansfield Street.

For starters, it will be the new home for his Flashback Vintage Game Room, plus a flea market that opens this weekend. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m Saturday and Sunday.

But Manely hopes eventually it will include an expanded second-floor arcade, complete with an indoor batting cage and miniature golf course; a flea market filling the entire first floor; and two floors of housing for homeless veterans. He's even set aside space for his own home — he currently lives in Navarre, southwest of Canton.

"I knew I was going to retire, so I knew I wanted something to do after I retired," he said of how his business started. "I rented a space in a flea market in Navarre, Ohio, which is where I'm from. I bought and sold 8-tracks, 16-millimeter movies ... and then one day, I got a pinball machine. Well, now I'm over 100 of those things."

Manely said he bought an old Sunoco gas station in Navarre and transformed it into his first Flashbacks shop, which had 38 arcade games.

He moved that business, Flashback Vintage Game Room, to 223 N. Sandusky Ave. in the fall of 2018. It closed during the pandemic.

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Being across the street from Baker's Pizza Sports Shack didn't drive traffic to the arcade the way he had hoped it would, Manely said. He considered buying the old armory on Spring Street, then found an online listing for the old Swan Rubber building, 428 E. Mansfield St.

"I thought that might be the thing," he said. "So, long story short, I bought it. People ask me 'What are you going to do with it?' I go, 'Well, pretty much whatever I want.'"

Bucyrus resident Bill Taylor, who managed the arcade on North Sandusky, is working with Manely at the new location, too. A small area on the first floor has been transformed into his woodworking shop.

When Manely bought the building, the first floor was crammed with "tons and tons" of wooden sand-casting forms that had been stored there over the years by Eagle Crusher.

"That was what I got stuck with," he said. He gave many of them away; one craftsman purchased the rest, planning to transform them into furniture.

Manely said his purchase also included a limited liability company set up by the previous owner, Swan Song.

For now, a portion of the first floor has been sectioned off to house the Flashback arcade, with two skeeball machines and 63 video and pinball games. Most arcade customers are in their 30s or older, Manely noted.

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"That way, they can come in, do the shopping, and here's $10, go play the games," he said. Just as at the North Sandusky Avenue location, the arcade will charge $10 for an hour.

The remaining area will have room for 48 vendors at first. For the first day, Manely said he plans to have a kettle corn vendor and a food truck on hand.

He has plans to expand the parking lot, extending it behind the building and leveling out the bank to the east of the 60,000-square-foot structure. When it's time for the Lincoln Highway Buy-Way sales in early August, he plans to invite vendors to set up all along the curb.

"With this much room, what the heck? That would be a good plus, to have more people," he said. "Usually what I do is I sometimes just give the space away for free, because it helps more to promote the town and it helps promote my business here."

But that's just to get started, Manely said. 

On April 19, when he showed off the building to a reporter, the first floor and basement were bustling with activity as workers prepared the structure for the first flea market. Updating the electrical system to handle all of the games, plus provide better lighting, was a top priority.

Old, unused junction boxes will be ripped out and sold for scrap, he explained. Eventually, the first floor ceiling will get insulation and a drop ceiling.

The building's original front lobby, with a Swan Rubber logo set into its marble floors, will become the main entrance for the arcade once it moves to the second floor, he said.

"We're going to take the general offices upstairs and put maybe 120 games, plus batting cages, a miniature golf course, and this first floor is going to be a flea market — antiques, crafts and all that stuff," he said.

Amid the many corridors and offices on the second floor, he's already mapped out the ideal spots for everything, he said.

The upper two floors have no lighting at all, and it's clear birds have found their way in around the boarded-up windows and made themselves at home. The top floor is almost entirely empty, except for pulleys along the ceiling that were used to braid rubber strands for the hoses. Manely hooted loudly, then listened to the echoes bounce around the vast chamber.

He has plans for this space, too.

"Doug Wilson is the Realtor who helped me buy the building from Jim Michael, and he's a veteran," Manely said. "So he's invited me to a veterans' forum with Jim Jordan and I'm going to talk with him about taking the third and fourth floor and making it into a homeless shelter for the vets ... being a Vietnam vet, that means an awful lot to me. There's no reason for a vet to be on the street for anything; I don't care what the situation is."

He's not sure how old the building is, but a worker who checked out its elevators found one motor stamped "1901," he said. 

"The advertisement said this was built in 1946, but that's not true," he said. "It closed in 1956, so this could be ... I don't know, a 1900 building or even older."

Manely said a former Swan employee stopped in and said he has the blueprints for the building.

"What I'm hoping is over a period of time, the Swan people start showing up here and bringing things in so I can make some sort of display," he said. A room on the first floor has a large display case. "I'm going to celebrate the Swan factory with all the pictures and whatever, because this was a helluva place."