Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
The Shawano Redevelopment Authority is taking steps that could lead to condemnation of another downtown property owned by the Samanta Roy Institute of Science and Technology.
The RDA last month initiated proceedings against a long-vacant and blighted property at 214 S. Main St., along with an adjacent vacant property at 216 S. Main St.
But SIST was allowed another 30 days to present a plan of action for rehabilitating a vacant building at 143. S. Main St.
That deadline passed this week with no plan, correspondence or contact from SIST, according to Assistant City Administrator Eddie Sheppard, who is providing staff support for the RDA.
The RDA on Thursday approved a “resolution of necessity” regarding 143 S. Main St. that allows the city to get appraisals of the property. The resolution is basically the first step in exercising eminent domain rights over the property, if the city and SIST can’t agree on a purchase price.
“They started the clock,” Sheppard said.
Representatives of the SIST group could not be reached for comment about the city’s latest move on the downtown properties.
The city has already done appraisals of the 214-216 E. Green Bay St. buildings and is expecting the results of those appraisals by early next week. SIST will then have 30 days to get its own appraisals if it doesn’t agree with the city’s numbers.
Appraisals will be done on the 143 S. Main St. property within the next month. That property is considered blighted but not in as bad a shape as the one at 214 S. Main St.
The city last year conducted a court-ordered inspection at 214 S. Main St. that showed the property was a health and safety hazard and was structurally unsound. The city then directed SIST to show that the group had hired an engineering or architectural firm to develop plans for making repairs, along with proof that those plans had been submitted to the state, an appraisal of the property and engineering estimates for restoration of the entire structure, SIST’s intentions for the building after it has been renovated, a timeline for moving forward with the reconstruction, and proof of financing showing that SIST can afford to do what it says it will do.
SIST also would have had to show the RDA the state-approved plan, which would include how SIST intended to make the building habitable and would cover any lighting, electrical, plumbing, heating and construction work that needed to be done.
Because that building shares a common wall with 216 S. Main St., city officials say it would be difficult to redevelop one without the other.
They also said that if one of the properties were to be razed, the other would have to go, too, given the deterioration of the inner wall.