Issue date: 6/4/09 Section: News

he apartments located on the corner of Fourth Street and Polk Avenue in Charleston are being demolished due to their dangerous condition. (Joe McCue/The Daily Eastern News)

The city of Charleston has decided to file a lawsuit against the owners of the property on the corner of Polk Avenue and 4th Street.

On this property, at 403 and 407 Polk St., sits two partially destructed buildings. They have had chain-linked fences surrounding them for the past few months, and city officials say the buildings need to be taken down as soon as possible.

City mayor John Inyart said the fact that they started to take these buildings down and have left them in an open, vacant state is unacceptable.

"Essentially, we started this process because, contrary to what I was led to believe about the buildings coming down after school let out, I was put on notice that the owners were going to leave them up as leverage to get their new plan approved," Inyart said. "I cannot put my city council, my zoning board or my city planner in that position."

Chad Phillips, co-owner of this property, said that this is not true.

"At this moment in time, I feel it has been a guessing game between him and us," Phillips said. "Accusations and rumors shouldn't be made…I want this to be a win-win for everyone, for us, for the city and for the townspeople."

Phillips said there was no deadline officially set, but they had plans.

"We have talked to the mayor a couple of times over what we were going to do and there was some controversy over the parking at Melrose between the townspeople and the city over letting us get rid of the 10 extra parking spaces," Phillips said.

Originally, Phillips wanted to have the entire project done for the Fall 2009 semester, but this controversy kept that from happening.

Phillips said the issue at hand simply has to do with receiving the loan from the bank to finish the demolition and begin construction. He said he could not start work until the bank approves the loan and the loan cannot be approved until the city approves the project.

"At this point in time, I can not go ahead with demolition because I don't have my construction loans," Phillips said. "A construction loan is the vital part of this process because at this moment in time, with the economic crunch that we are going through, we have the FDIC tightening up some of their regulations."

Inyart said these buildings affect more than just the immediate parties; it also affects the surrounding neighborhood.

"It may not seem like, on the surface, it is hurting anything to some people, but imagine if you were in that neighborhood and were trying to sell your home or you are thinking about renting in the area," Inyart said. "I think that eye sore and that safety hazard could and would affect those decisions."

Inyart said that, if Phillips cannot complete the demolition, the city would do it for them.

"The owners contend they can't get the funding to tear these down until their plan is approved," Inyart said. "The problem with that is, one really doesn't have anything to do with the other, in the fact that they started tearing down and left them in a mess, and that is the bigger issue."

Inyart said the city is making a request to the court to give permission to the city to complete the demolition.

"If these folks can't complete their project, let us pay for it, let us put a lean on it, and when they get their money they can pay us back," Inyart said.

If this is done, this will cost Phillips and his brother, Hadley Phillips, a co-owner, more money.

"With city contracts, a demolition or a construction project, we have to use state prevailing wage rates, which means, typically we will pay more for a construction job than a commercial site," Inyart said. "It is very possible it could cost them 25 - 30 percent more."

Phillips said if they couldn't work out the differences, he would be forced to stop work on the project again this year.

"I'm not going to financially get involved with a project that I'm not going to be able to complete," Phillips said. "It's me, it's my brother, it's our family and everything we got, and I'm not going to go down in flames over a deadline."

If the demolition is settled, Phillips is looking to have construction done by the Fall 2010 semester for students to movie in. The complex will have one- and two-bedroom apartments.

"When you have three and four bedrooms in a unit, the noise level multiplies quickly," Phillips said. "By having the one- and two-bedroom units, the noise level will be better suited for the neighborhood, which is close to a residential area."

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-7942 or at kzyskowski@eiu.edu.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.

Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.

Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.

If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.