Costs, lawsuits could sink plan to save historic Downtown building

The four-story structure at 313 W. Fifth St. is easy to miss if you’re in a car whizzing through Downtown.

But historic preservation advocates say the building is a critical piece of the city’s industrial history and its nationally recognized West Fourth Street Historic District.

The more than 150-year-old vacant building has two younger neighbors to the west on the same block. Look east, and there’s a parking lot where two old buildings used to stand.

“If this one goes, it goes from a coherent urban wall to a small collection of 19th-century buildings surrounded by parking lots,” said Paul Muller, an architect and executive director of the nonprofit Cincinnati Preservation Association. “We don’t have many buildings Downtown pre-Civil War. Holding on to this one is important for history and for what it does in terms of an urban design.”

Although the city issued a demolition order last week on the building across the street from the Duke Energy Convention Center, it’s not quite game over.

A city spokeswoman said potential buyers Hamilton County Landbank, Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority and Cincinnati Preservation Association have been involved in discussions with the property owner about saving the structure.

“There are some options in the works,” said John Stillpass, an attorney for the building’s owner, West Fifth Building Associates.

Regardless of whether the building stays or gets razed, the city has deemed the structure unsafe in its current condition.

Lindsey Mithoefer of Cincinnati’s department of buildings and inspections said the city issued an emergency hazard abatement order Dec. 21 after one of the building’s external walls collapsed. There’s a barricade in front of the building now to protect passers-by from injury. That permit is scheduled to expire March 1, she said.

“The city gave the owner an option to abate the situation or demolish the building,” Mithoefer said. “It’s the owner’s responsibility to pay for it.”

That means shelling out cash to pay a general contractor and obtain a city permit to complete the work.

Stillpass said it will cost between $160,000 and $300,000 to stabilize the structure. If demolition is pursued, the cost rises. The price tag of repairs has caused potential buyers to balk at acquiring the property, which is worth about $126,000, according to the Hamilton County Auditor’s Office.

There is a blueprint for rescuing a building seemed destined for the wrecking ball. Last year, preservation advocates and Over-the-Rhine residents helped save a building at 1706 Lang St. that was set for demolition. The 161-year-old, three-family brick building was vacant and dilapidated, but residents raised money and the city worked with the county landbank to stabilize the structure.

This situation is better than the default, which Muller said used to mean, "if it’s questionable, it has to come down immediately."

"We respect city’s public safety necessity," he said. "The city understands keeping our historic buildings is important economically and culturally. I don’t think they’re at fault here."

Here’s another issue: The circumstances that led to the building falling into disrepair is the central point in a lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

Harvey Diamond, general partner of Walnut Hills-based Diamond Mercantile Co., blames a company it hired to complete repairs and ultimately buy 313 W. Fifth St.

The contractor, Herkulease Rigging & Digging, and its owner Christopher Meyer of Covington blame Diamond for the building’s condition.

Diamond sued Herkulease in 2015 for defaulting on a land contract the parties reached in 2011. Herkulease was supposed to pay $475,000 over a nearly three-year period to acquire the building and also help resolve outstanding code issues the city had with the building.

In the lawsuit, Herkulease was accused of defaulting on paying money to Diamond and real estate taxes. The company was also accused of completing unpermitted repairs that caused significant damage.

“It became apparent to the owner he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to,” Stillpass said.

The property is now under Diamond's control through the West Fifth entity.

However, Meyer claims Diamond evicted him from the property and violated the existing contract. Also, Meyer said it was the work of a new contractor hired by Diamond that resulted in the collapse of the front half of the building in 2015.

In July 2013, Herkulease claimed a construction contractor working to demolish an adjacent property caused significant damage to 313 W. Fifth St. That matter has since been settled.

Meyer filed liens on the property against Diamond for unpaid work done at the Fifth Street building. He is also seeking a new trial against Diamond.

"I thought it was worth saving," Meyer said. "That’s why I walked into this contract. I spent the last six years of my life repairing the building and slowly bringing it to city standards.

"It looks plain on the outside but it was a really neat building. It’s a little niche of Cincinnati that I wish I could’ve completed saving the building."

Meyer said the building was unique because it featured a blend of Italianate and other architecture styles seen Downtown and other parts of the city.

The West Fourth Street Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places 40 years ago. Bounded by Central Avenue, West Fifth, Plum Street and McFarland Street, the city deems the area as important to reflecting the expansion of residential, wholesale, retail and industrial activities in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries.

One lawsuit that isn’t settled involves the current owner of that same property. 305-309 W. Fifth Street LLC operates a parking lot next to 313 W. Fifth. A lawsuit filed last month claims the building’s condition with its fallen bricks and debris is preventing the full operation of the parking lot.