Wasatch Block Building Project History by David Howard Blackham The Wasatch Block Building was erected circa 1886. It is one of the more elaborate examples of Victorian commercial architecture. It was built for the Wasatch Mercantile Co., a general store, organized by Abram Johnson and Erastus Kofford. It later housed the Star Theater and then JC Penny’s in 1926. Still later, the Building housed the Big V department store, operated by Harry Hanson in the 70’s. The building fell vacant for a time until inherited owner, Ms. Edna Fletcher, chose to establish a business therein. She created a live-in business known as SANPETE RENTAL. It was originally a used furniture business that evolved into a video rental business and a cat infested gift store. Upon the death of Ms. Fletcher, who was found several days after her passing, the building reeked with the stench of death and cat waste. At that time it was purchased by Pete Henderson for the sum of $75,000. Mr. Henderson , a developer of commercial properties around the state, began restoration of the Grand Ole’ Building as it had fallen into a complete state of Blight. Mr. Henderson hired an architect, Mr. Kim Hyatt, as the overseer of the project. Plans were approved and Mr. Hyatt oversaw approximately $20,000 of remodeling work on the building. Windows were replaced and dry wall was hung in a few places and a roof membrane was installed. All of Mr. Hyatts work is oddly observed as none of his work ever addressed building stability. Water run-off from the melting snow pack in the winter of 2007 created instability of the east portion of the building, and the add-on portion collapsed in the spring of 2008. Mt. Pleasant City paid $7,000.00 to clean up the collapsed add-on building. A legal battle ensued between Mr. Henderson and Mt. Pleasant City, as both claimed the other was at fault. A settlement was finally reached between the City and Mr. Henderson wherein an appraisal of the building was done. The appraisal was $135,000.00. The building was donated to the RDA of Mt. Pleasant City and Mr. Henderson received a tax write off in the amount of the donation. The commitment to Mr. Henderson was that if the building was ever sold the new owners would be obligated to pay an additional $20,000 to him. A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL was developed by the RDA (Re-Development Agency) of the city, wherein anyone willing to invest $135,000.00, into restoring the building, would receive ownership of the building. The request for proposal was advertised several times in the local papers and it was accepted by an individual named Steve Kunick. He was the Chairman of the Main Street advisory committee at the time and the owner of the Snow Board shop on State Street. When his Snow Board business failed, he opened a business on 5th west and Main Street, known as the SMOKE SHOP. After a short time and several bids for restoration was received, Mr. Kunick returned to the RDA to request a loan to help in the restoration. Such funds were unavailable and the RDA re-advertised the RFP (Request For Proposal.) Several individuals looked into the proposal and rejected it as the building appeared completely un-repairable. I was contacted by the city as they inquired if I was interested in taking on the project. They knew that I had bid on the building in 2007 and lost out to Mr. Henderson. I attended a main street meeting with the principals of the city RDA also in attendance, to discuss the RFP. I asked members of that advisory board, and other financially successful members of our community, if they would be willing to join forces with me, in any way, to save the building. One member of our community, who will remain unnamed, said quote “I wouldn’t touch that building with a 10 foot poll.” Who would? There were bowed walls, a bowed second story floor, holes in the floors, holes in the roof, holes in the walls in every direction, and a stench that was indescribable. Because of its instability, within weeks to months, the building would have been gone, crumbling under its own weight. With the building on the edge of collapse, I felt that something had to be done. I knew I would be taking all the risk of the restoration building project on myself. I knew that, if successful, the investment of time, worry and money would be a poor investment at best and possibly a loss of everything invested into an attempt to preserve it. Time was definitely not an ally of the building. It was explained to me that there were contiguous walls with the Country Squire building and if the Wasatch Block Building fell the Country Squire Building would have to be demolished also. The adobe brick walls were so fragile that touching it caused instant disintegration. Against my better financial judgment but because of my love for our Historic Main Street, I accepted the proposal and hired Jim Noorlander as the general contractor for this legacy project. He accepted and with his astute abilities, we saved the building from collapse. To prevent the destruction of the building, walls had to be rebuilt and reframed. Steel supports were installed. Foundation stability was accomplished, Possibly the hardest thing that was accomplished was then to clean out the building of all damaged wood and junk as the stench of death , cat dung, bird dung, bat dung and rat dung still remained. It was beyond anyone’s ability to remain in the building for any amount of time without becoming very ill. Jim Noorlander stated often that he felt like this project was hopeless. He persisted masterfully, anyway. We, at first, were working under the belief that we did not need to purchase a building permit from the county, as building inspections would be done by the city, because the building was owned by the municipality. After a complaint by the architect, the disgruntled Kim Hyatt, was received by the Sanpete County building inspectors’ office, it was decided that a legal battle was not worth the victory of the argument and a building permit was purchased. We were first working on attaining building stability and didn’t worry much about anything else until the stability of the structure was accomplished. When the project proceeded to the next phase e.g., how systems and floor plans were to be established, we used the basic plans of the Architect, Kim Hyatt. He was very angry at that time, as he fully expected another customary 15% for his plan. We didn’t pay him for his plan, as he demanded, because we felt that his plans had already been paid for by Mr. Hendersen, as the plans were inherited from him, and came with the project. The project proceeded quickly with the full faith and confidence of the Sanpete County Building inspector. Jim Noorlander worked very closely with him at every turn. I had used almost all of my available savings from all sources at this point. I was into it enough that I began selling assets to meet the building restoration costs. This project became almost like a child to me and it consumed me as to the point that “no expense” was too much. At this point, I acquired a line of credit that would have been enough to complete the project. Jim Noorlander understood my financial situation and began doing much of his work for free. He grew to love the building and the fact that we had saved it. We were weeks away from completion, (sheet rock and finish work was all that was left) when the words of an angry and disgruntled architect namely Kim Hyatt, again voiced his grave concerns to the county building inspector over stability. He stated that the county would be completely liable for any injury caused if the project proceeded. At this late date, I believe that the building was more structurally stable than any other building on the north side of Mt. Pleasant’s Main Street. The county inspector took Mr. Hyatts unfounded concerns to heart and RED TAGGED the project until we could get a stamp of approval from a state licensed structural engineer. This halted all activity in the spring of 2011. At this time a structural engineer, who was working on a new construction project at Wasatch Academy, was hired to sign off on the stability of the building. He, unfortunately, concurred with architect Mr. Hyatt, that the building was ruined and recommended demolition. I was financially into the building approx. $190,000 plus over $30,000 of in kind and trade labor. Jim and I had a few tear filled conversations and Jim felt completely responsible for the project failure. He even offered his personal property to me for restitution. That offer was flatly rejected by me. I was prepared to walk away from this investment carrying the entire financial loss, personally. A few weeks later a call from the city RDA chairman, Monte Bona, gave me and Jim Noorlander a glimmer of hope. We had learned that the structural engineer hired, had black balled almost every restoration project he had ever looked at and that he almost always recommended demolition. Mr. Bona recommended that we hire a structural engineer that does work for the heritage foundation, one that had worked with restoration projects before. Monte thought possibly that he could help by trying to get a $20,000 grant to pay for the engineer. The grant was procured and the new engineer was hired. He rejected the first engineer’s evaluations and said that he would sign off on the building for stability if approximately $20,000.00 worth of structural additions were done. Finally, we had our pathway to completion. The excitement and love returned towards the building and plans for 4 apartments and a commercial business in front, were contemplated and discussed. At this time, knowing of my financial circumstances, Monte Bona, the city representative we worked with during the entire process, said that because of the $220.000 already invested, there was an excellent chance that a matching grant could be procured and he suggested that we give him time to inquire concerning such. I was game, as I fully felt that the building would be mine and that any added funds would turn a very poor investment into a better investment. Jim and I stood back as the grant was requested and finally presented. At that time, we were informed that because of the restoration of a Historic Building that had the low income housing component, it moved our grant request to the top of the competitive bidding and the grant was awarded. At this point we were told that the project needed to be put up for bid for work to continue on the building. Because of all of the emotional pain caused from this project, Jim Noorlander did not want to participate in the process of bidding to finish his work, using the grants, for the final construction phase. The bid was awarded to a Salt Lake County construction company and the work began. This is when things took a huge change for me. I was invited to a meeting with the City Officials overseeing the project and I was presented with a completely different proposal. The City Officials stated that due to the federal funding of the project, they didn’t think that they could honor the RFP, that had been agreed upon. They also discussed with me their fear that if they actually could give the grant funds to me, that any rational minded person of this community, would be very angry that the city facilitated a project wherein a citizen was personally enriched by such a large amount. They proposed only 2 options to me; e.g. (1) Pay the city for the federally matched grant, of $200,000, at an interest rate of 2.5% over 20 years or (2) Allow the RDA to pay me for the funds that I could quantify that went into the project (approximately $190,000) at 2.5% over 20 years, which would start by contract on July 1st 2013. With 4 apartments the estimated cash flow would be approximately $2,000/month. I felt that the best deal for the city would be to keep the building and pay me back over time. I also knew that the $200,000 bid by the other contractor would only go about as far as Jim Noorlanders’ and I doing the work of approximately $100,000. I wasn’t about to pay for the high wages and the 15% profit that most contractors add to their work, when I would have no say on who got the bid and did that work! After consultation with my wife, we chose to take the pay-out. The way it was presented, was such that it wasn’t our project anymore and that really hurt. I must say that losing my position on this building project was difficult for me. The only consolation was that I and Jim had saved the building. The historic main street was preserved. My gift, so to speak, to the city was there for all to see and enjoy. Since that time another $135,000 grant was awarded for 2 additional apartments to be built in the storefront portion of the building. It was conveyed to me that the model was so compelling to the grant committee that they actually asked the city to petition them for the additional funds. It should be pointed out that the estimated cash flow from the completed project would be approximately $3,000.00 per month with a mortgage of $1,000.00 per month, representing the payments back to me. Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to live in a townhome, that within a block of walking distance is a school, an eating establishment, a pharmacy, a recreation center, the library, a couple of gas stations, city hall, a bank, a florist shop, a newspaper co, the phone company, the county health department, a post office, 2 churches, several gift stores, a home health co., a bar, and even the mortuary. I believe that the view from the second floor apartments is breath taking and inspiring. The agreed upon note needed to be approved by the City Council. There were several debates over the 190k note repayment in RDA meetings and at City Council meetings. Particularly, City Councilman, Jeff McDonald, a current candidate for Mayor, did not like the secured portion of the note and insisted that the note be unsecured. In an effort to come to a complete agreement with the elected officials, I agreed to an unsecured note, and such was changed. Then, when the proposal came up for a final vote, Mr. McDonald suggested a complete change of direction. He suggested that the building be given to me and forget any political fallout over the grant funds coming to me personally, as he believed the building wouldn’t be worth much more that the $200,000 even after the new $135,000 of federal grant funds were invested. Despite his late suggested argument, the vote proceeded and the results were 4 in favor and 1 against (Jeff McDonald) to honor the negotiated agreement between me and the city. Now you know the full story as I experienced it. David Howard Blackham
Posted on: Tue, 30 Jul 2013 15:07:23 +0000
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