Officials hope these repairs and investments will help find a firm to revitalize the long empty, former KeyBank building at 34 N. Main St. (also formerly called the Paru Tower and Society Bank).
This “sets the stage for us to aggressively go after redevelopment,” said Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein. “This roof provides for preservation, dry and safe, and stabilization of this building.”
Dayton recently approved a service agreement with A.H. Sturgill Roofing for emergency stabilization and repair services for 34 N. Main St. after the top edge of the building and a low wall on the roof fell off during windy conditions on March 15.
“The building was found to be compromised at the upper story, with significant loss of the brick exterior missing along the length of the building from the northeast rear corner toward the front face on Main Street,” says a March memo from Steve Gondol, Dayton’s director of planning, neighborhoods and development.
The city is using $1 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funding and nearly $570,000 from its general fund to pay for the roof replacement project.
This agreement was approved five weeks after the city authorized spending $1.95 million for Bladecutter’s Inc. to take steps to help stabilize the 14-story old bank building.
City Manager Dickstein said the roof replacement should take about six to eight weeks to complete, and while that work is going on city staff will prepare a request for proposals (RFP) to seek a developer for the building.
Dickstein said 34 N. Main St. is a historic and iconic building that has some special features, including a central light well that provides natural light to the interior of many of the floors.
The city hopes to have better success than its previous attempts to redevelop the building. The city issued an RFP seeking a developer about nine years ago but nothing panned out.
In addition to emergency repairs and roof replacement, other recent improvements to the Main Street building included asbestos remediation. The building was transferred to the Montgomery County Land Bank in 2017. Properties in the land bank’s possession are exempt from property taxes.
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