West Central Reporter

The City of Jacksonville Council recently held a special meeting to discuss the fate of an old downtown building whose roof collapsed a little over a year ago.

At the Nov. 21 council meeting, a Jacksonville Main Street group representative asked the city not to demolish the historical building at 234 W State St. as it could be structurally fixed with some renovations. The organization had plans to meet with firms to try to get enough funding to turn the building into apartments. Representatives from Rammelkamp Bradney P.C., whose adjacent office building was damaged as the result of the October 2021 roof collapse, said they had been trying for over a year to get the building torn down after they received quotes from  contractors about repairing the building. Rammelkamp explained the bids started at $1 million just to have the first floor usable.

“If that all falls through, and we proceed, it would go to court, assuming we can't get the owners to convey the property to whoever we designate,” city attorney Daniel Beard said at the meeting. “As we release our liens in that case, then we would need to go to court to foreclose our demolition claims. Court would then schedule the property for sale. Some entity at that point would come in and purchase the property and then they'd be stuck with whatever.”

The council passed a motion granting West State Properties, Ltd./Rammelkamp Bradney, P.C a demolition permit and a repealing of the city’s liens once they show proof that they have purchased the building.

The city funded efforts to clean it up and protect the building from further damage despite the building being owned by Deep Thoughts 42 LLC. The owners, who have no insurance on the building and haven’t paid taxes since 2020, haven’t responded to any communication regarding the incident.