Saturday, January 30, 1999
Another mall idea: Buy, raze
Middletown mulls options
BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN — The city might save millions of dollars by buying the 15 privately owned buildings in City Centre Mall and razing the dilapidated ones rather than paying for expensive facade restoration.
Many of the old buildings in the mall may be worth only a fraction of the renovation costs, and it makes no sense to spend more to save them than they're worth. And some owners may welcome a “bail-out,” City Commissioner Paul Nenni said.
Those ideas are the basis of a plan conceived by James Beatty, a Realtor here nearly 50 years. He shared the ideas with Mr. Nenni, who gave details of the plan to a handful of city officials Thursday.
The plan calls for the privately owned buildings to be appraised, and to make the owners a take-it-or-leave-it offer based on fair market value. There would be no pressure to sell, no property seizure by eminent domain or condemnation of property, Mr. Beatty said Friday. Buildings worth saving could later be sold to developers.
The commissioners' goal is to get out of the mall business at the lowest possible cost. So, “we need to attempt to get some figures and think this plan through,” Mr. Nenni said.
This plan is another in a growing list of proposals to help commissioners decide the fate of the dilapidated, outdated mall. The mall canopy was put in place in the mid-1970s as part of an estimated $11 million downtown project, funded primarily by a federal urban renewal grant.
Cleveland architect Jonathan Sandvick has said mall maintenance and repair costs could reach $30 million in 20 years, and tearing off the canopy could cost far less.
One of Mr. Sandvick's options, which appears to be the favored plan to date, would cost $17 million and includes tearing off most of the roof, restoring the building facades, reopening Central Avenue and adding a farmer's market. He estimates a cost of $50 million to acquire all properties and level the mall.
A proposal by local entrepreneur Perry Thatcher includes taking the roof off of half the mall, reopening Central Avenue, adding a convention center partly within the mall and partly inside the Manchester Inn and Conference Center, plus parking and redevelopment. Cost estimate is $9 million to $15 million.
Mr. Nenni said there are no cost estimates for Mr. Beatty's plan, but it appears it would be much less. And his idea could result in a “hybrid plan” — a combination of various proposals, Mr. Nenni said.
Mr. Beatty said he “just threw out some ideas,” but “I've thought about this for months. ... Why spend more to fix something than it's going to be worth in the end?”
Mr. Nenni said some estimates indicate it would cost $200,000 to $300,000 to restore the facade on a small block of buildings on Central Avenue, including the Castell Building. But that whole block of buildings sold recently for less than $200,000, he said.
Commission Chairman Earl Smith and Commissioner Fred Sennet, who heard the plan, said it has merit, but they want more details and costs.
“There's some solid logic in what he's saying, but is that configuration for downtown going to work in terms of future development?” Mr. Smith said.
Richard Isroff, executive vice president of Rogers Jewelers, said the possibility of tearing down some buildings in a block and leaving others sounds like a bad idea.
“You won't get green space — just another brown area, a mudhole,” he said.
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