The Salvation Army has won approval to demolish an historic
home it owns next door to its office at 540 N. Alabama St. after Indiana Landmarks could not find another user willing to
invest in the property. The Queen Anne-style structure at 234 E. Michigan St., which was built before 1898 as a single-family
home, has been controlled by the Salvation Army since 1947. It was used as apartments until about five years ago. While the
exterior remains in good condition, the interior is in rough shape. A report prepared for Indiana Landmarks by Mansur estimated
renovation would cost between $600,000 and $700,000. "As hard as I tried, I was not successful, particularly in this
economic environment, in finding an end user willing to lease and spend a large sum of money to rehab," Mark Dollase
of Indiana Landmarks wrote in an e-mail. "It had much going for it, but also much against it." The Metropolitan
Development Commission approved the Salvation Army's request Wednesday. No date has been set for demolition. The Salvation
Army had planned to use the space for parking but is now proposing green space.
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Welcome to Property Lines, Indy's source for neighborhood real estate news. Your host is Scott Olson, IBJ's real estate beat
reporter. Edited by Cory Schouten.
Effort to save Salvation Army building comes up short
August 18, 2010
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It's also across the street from Fogo de Chao and Morton's....
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Yep, the haters are trying to make good news bad. I guess it is hard to get people to believe the series is dying when they are gaining new sponsors.
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David Copperfield! I remember watching his specials on TV when I was little.
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Don't forget this is next to an MMA gym, a pawn shop, and some abandoned spaces.
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Good project for Zionsville - A group who has owned the property for many years has waited and worked patiently to bring highest and best use development to a major corridor, and mix that in with the great downtown you have. Win Win. All the Best to Pittman Partners and Zionsville.
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Looking at this another way, let's accept that they DO have a real need for parking. What if Indiana Landmarks HAD been able to find someone willing to fix up the building? What would the Salvation Army have done to satisfy their parking need? Whatever it is, we should have asked them to use that solution regardless.
I'm with CorrND - greenspace doesn't make sense given the proximity to the park.
How many construction bids did they get? I'd be curious to get a second opinion . . .
To my knowledge, no one documented any special historical significance of this one.
Since this house has long been cut up into apartments, restoring any kind of historic integrity to the inside would be difficult and expensive.
Plus...it's more than 100 years old and in "rough" shape. Just bringing it up to acceptable life-safety standards would be expensive. Adding ADA accessibility would add more expense. Modernizing mechanicals would be costly.
Sometimes demolition is the best solution, and without a tenant willing to pay for all the repairs, the choice is to let it fall in or knock it down. I'd rather look at a vacant lot than a deteriorating vacant building.
The house has been listed for a while on the Indiana Landmarks website as 226 E. Michigan Street. The Salvation Army doesnâ??t want to sell, but suggests leasing to a long-term tenant (itâ??s connected to their office building).
Because it faces the â??Tista Oilâ?? gas station, it might be a hard sell to prospective homebuyers. It would be great for a law office or similar light commercial use. Many professionals and non-profits offer low-/no cost construction help for remodeling, so the repair cost isnâ??t the only factor in play.
Aside, I have never been happy with the way the Salvation Army takes care of its properties on this block. On face value, it doesnâ??t seem to be very good steward. The fact that it doesnâ??t want to sell makes me think that it has been coveting the land and has planned demolition for years, hoping no one would notice the neglect.
At the end of the day, there is no good excuse for stealing a great house from the neighborhood simply because someone failed to plan adequately for its care and upkeep. Maybe we should all be more generous in our giving to the Salvation Army this holiday so they donâ??t screw some other neighborhood in 2011.
Yes, it's sandwiched between the S.A. and subsidized apts, but many other nearby market-rate ventures are thriving. A bed & breakfast? Probably not the best idea. But condos, apts, or professional offices would all seem potentially viable, IF the investor would actually be able to OWN their investment.
There are plenty of more-intact neighborhoods to indulge nostalgia for days gone by. We already have Lockerbie, Chatham Arch-Mass Ave, Old Northside, Herron Morton frozen in time.
Keep in mind that knee-jerk "preservation at all cost" arguments were probably tried 90 years ago to prevent the demolitions that created the American Legion Mall and War Memorial, or three decades ago when the Board of Trade building was demolished to build the Chase Tower. But today those "new" landmarks are essential parts of the urban fabric of our city.
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Cities change and redevelop repeatedly over time. Today's Paris is built on the rubble of widespread demolition 140 years ago.
Ancient and great cities like London and Rome are layer upon layer of urban redevelopment. I'm thankful that "preservation at all cost" didn't carry the day there.
Demolition of a single isolated remnant dilapidated house in Downtown Indianapolis is not a cause for taking up arms.
Let's focus limited time and resources instead on places like School 97 (and the rest of IPS' truly irreplaceable historic structures) using the restored manor house at Cold Spring School as an example of good adaptive re-use. Let's fight to somehow preserve, adapt or creatively re-purpose places of real significance (such as the Old St. Vincent, Indiana Landmarks' Old Centrum, and the Rivoli Theater).
And let's leave the Salvation Army alone.
And you're comparing the creation of the Legion Mall to the demolition of an existing property to replace it with a useless greenspace (which will, of course, eventually be converted to surface parking)?
How much embodied energy is in this existing structure? What will it cost to demolish? What is the impact of its demolition? Can we really not find anyone to inhabit the building, provided that the SA is willing to sell the property vs. lease it?
And to the guy who said this property has been up for discussion for 2 years, where was the coverage then? I consider myself part of the preservation community, but I've heard nothing of SA's plans to demolish this structure.
Historic Landmarks had a year to find a buyer or a tennant. How many serious candidates did they bring to the table? Why didn't Historic Landmarks do a better job of publicizing this if as you say you'r part of that community and you didn't know. Why didn't Historic Landmarks take up Steve Simpson's offer to join the Salvation Army on the air to discuss? Are the board members of Historic Landmarks holding their director accountable for his bungling of this project? Why is their director fighting the Salvation Army over a marginally historic property when truly historic Bush Stadium is filled with cars from the Cash for Clunker's program? And why is the Salvation Army taking so much heat when a few years ago, they restored the Barton Center (2 doors down) at a cost of over 10 million dollars?
Sometimes tearing down a dilapidated and obsolete house is the right thing to do. I did not every say "always" the right thing to do, even though you're trying to paint me into that corner.
In this specific case, it's hard to make an economic or historic argument in favor of the old house on Michigan: it's a run-down energy-inefficient firetrap that would require more money than it's worth to save. It is not listed on the inventory of significant buildings.
How much labor and embedded energy would go into a total gut to make it energy-efficient? How much material into a landfill? It would need new wiring, new plumbing, new HVAC, new sprinklers, new ramp and/or elevator (for ADA compliance)....
Sometimes decisions have to be about the numbers, and sometimes the best way to "save" the house is with a picture in an album, especially for an organization whose business is helping people get their lives on track.
would rather see family's fed & housed,than parked cars?