The Three Rivers City Commission has authorized demolition of the two-story brick building at 110 East Michigan Avenue in Three Rivers.

The action during the commission meeting Tuesday evening (October 6th) clears the way for removal of the building that is adjacent to the Portage River Parking Plaza.

The city purchased the building in 2004 for $85,000.  The city owned all the property surrounding the parcel and purchased it when it came up for sale.

The building was targeted for demolition in 2008, but was given a nine-month reprieve on July 1st of last year to allow time for efforts to market the building.

In a staff report, City Manager Joe Bippus said the city has allowed interested parties to tour the building and, at one point, held hearings to make the property an OPRA district.  The city listed the property with a local realtor for nine months and no offers were submitted.

According to Bippus, the building “is not in usable condition at this time and would take extensive work to rehabilitate.”

Meyer Ventures has offered to remove the building for the city and backfill the basement area with dirt for $7,300.

Bippus said funds from the East City Parking Lot project have been carried over to pay for the demolition and indicated that, “Once the building is gone, the city will be able to develop the property or allow a private entity to do it.”

Regarding demolition, Commissioner Daryl Griffith said, “I hate to do it because it’s a beautiful building, in spite of some people’s opinion, but it’s obvious we’ve gone to every length that we promised we would to find somebody to take it on and nobody’s found the economically viable project for it.  The building’s only going to get worse and only get more expensive to deal with.”  He also said, “To take a building down of that size for 73-hundred bucks is a hell of a bargain.”