The Downtown building that houses Paisan’s restaurant is in danger of immediately collapsing onto nearby buildings and the street below, a development the owner says “could risk public lives,” according to a demolition request for the building filed this week. But a Downtown City Council member called the request “hyperbolic,” adding that the city wouldn’t allow the building to remain open if a catastrophe were actually imminent.
The ongoing deterioration of the building’s underground parking garage has reached a point where it cannot continue to hold up the building, Greg Rice, the building’s owner, said in a demolition request filed Monday.
The façade of the building, 131 W. Wilson St., has also started to bow out, Rice wrote, which could lead to falling brick “either injuring or even killing a person.”
“It is time for this building to be closed to the public,” Rice said.
“If the city does not grant a demolition permit, the building is at risk of falling,” he continued. “If the building falls, it could collapse onto the adjacent apartment buildings, the public streets, or the railroad, all of which could risk public lives.”
Ald. Mike Verveer, who represents Downtown, said that while the building does need to be demolished, city building inspectors have found that its structural integrity is not as dire as Rice claims.
“I just want to reassure Downtown stakeholders and the community that if the building was in danger of immediate collapse, city building inspectors would order it empty” and block off public access to the street below, Verveer said.
Rice submitted a notice to the city that he wanted to tear the building down in April. A development team has also proposed a 14-story, mixed use building on the site that would have a deck-top pool and roughly 250 apartments. The developer, who has an option to buy the site, has not stepped forward publicly because Rice is locked in a legal battle with the building’s remaining tenants, Verveer said.
Verveer added he believes Rice made the “over the top” demolition request to push out the tenants.
“I believe that the city’s being used as a tool to further the interests of the property owner, and I find that unfortunate,” Verveer said.
Rice had not responded to a request for comment.
Matt Tucker, the city’s director of building inspection, said the site’s engineers, Pierce Engineers, who work independently of Rice, have not alerted the city of an imminent collapse.
“The bottom line is everything has been stable,” Tucker said, adding that the city will follow up with the engineering firm in case there is new information about the integrity of the building.
Multiple closings
The building has closed and reopened twice since September. It first closed over structural concerns, and again when Rice did not comply with inspection requirements, the city said at the time.
Wally Borowski, the owner of Paisan’s, said Rice had not told him about the building’s alleged condition.
Borowski was cutting a pizza Friday afternoon in the kitchen of the restaurant, which remains open.
“I would say you’ve got to be kidding me,” Borowski responded when told about Rice’s demolition request. “The city has said it’s safe. Where’s this coming from?”
After city inspectors first closed the building in September, steel posts were installed in the underground parking garage.
In his letter, Rice said the posts are meant to be temporary and may loosen 180 days after installation, a date that passed in mid-April.
“Chunks of concrete ceiling in the garage continue to break off and fall onto the parking floors on occasion, endangering the lives of anyone entering the parking garage,” Rice said in his letter.
Most have left
Tucker said the use of the shores has been extended, and that their presence is typically a means to encourage people to fix a building.
Most tenants have vacated the building in the last six months, but a few remain, Rice said.
“Any tenant that insists on remaining in the building at this point or delaying its demolition is putting its own interests above public safety,” he said in the demolition request.
Verveer said Rice and his company have allowed the building to deteriorate over the years.
“If anyone’s to be blamed, it’s them,” he said.
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