Old Steakhouse building at 629/633 Main to be demolished

by Carrie Moritz, Gazette

            On Monday, the Garretson City Council met in special session to discuss the upcoming 2024 budget. During that meeting, the council discussed the old steakhouse building at 629/633 Main Avenue that has been closed off since the end of June due to structural issues.

            City building inspector JR Hofer gave the report to the council, and the prognosis from the inspector was dim, leading both city officials and the legal deed holder, Ken Leedy, to determine that the building should be demolished.

            Leedy is left in a tough position, as he had had the building under a contract for deed with Brian Persing and had been working to sell the building for many years.

            For his part, Persing was under a stop work order from the city, and other code enforcement violations had also been raised in a prior city council meeting.

            Leedy stated in the meeting that he had come to an agreement with Persing to terminate the contract, and that no further payments would be made.

            In his report, Hofer noted he had first noticed some movement and cracking in the fascia on June 22 and had contacted Rise Structural Associates for an inspection. Rise was unable to schedule an appointment any sooner than 5 to 10 days after that first contact, and on June 25, the Garretson Fire Department and Hofer were called to the building for what was deemed a "partial collapse."

            The fascia had come off the side of the building, leading to damage of the neighboring building at 621 Main.

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