For the past 40 years, an old hotel building in downtown Kent where I live has sat abandoned and tied up in court litigation for two whole generations. In the meantime, it has become a favorite pigeon roost and a place for homeless squatters to seek shelter. It's become more and more dilapidated with time as various owners have sought their piece of flesh from the city over liens placed on the building for code violations decades ago. Its most recent owner did the most physical damage to the building by gutting out the interior and damaging some of the historical integrity that would have allowed the building to be eligible for millions of dollars in historic preservation grants. It's become a blighted eyesore right on the east entrance to downtown Kent that decades of city councils and lawyers and judges have passed down to their respective successors. Attorneys have gotten very wealthy off of the various hotel owners who have continued taking the city to court to demand that they excuse the fines for health and safety violations. Some of us have pleaded with the city that the longer that the building lays dormant, the worse condition it will continue to deteriorate into and the less likely that it could be saved, but all I have heard for as long as I could remember, upon calling my various city council representatives is, "It's tied up in court". Well, finally, a long and agonizing chapter in Kent history is about to end. Apparently, it sounds like nobody wanted to buy the hotel from its most recent owner because his asking price was so absurd, so the city finally cried "Uncle" and gave him his pound of flesh just to make him go away so the city could then sell the building to someone else. The city just sold the old hotel to someone I wanted all along to have it who has been a major philanthropist to the city and who has invested his own money in a major downtown renovation project that is bringing back jobs and good businesses.
But in selling the building to said philanthropist, the city lost $300,000 at a time when they are crying "broke". The thinking here is that the city will make up the loss by the profits and tax revenues they will gain from whatever businesses go in there, but I hear that the profits from whatever ends up in that building will benefit the local social safety net services, which I think is GRAND and WONDERFUL. The city will eventually recoup its loss in some way, shape or form, I suspect, and if they had to take this loss in order to get the building into the hands of this philanthropist who all of us dreamed one day might get his hands on the building, well, so much the better. The individual who is now the proud owner of this sad decayed landmark is famous for getting things going very quickly and being a true man of his word, which is why he has earned the undying respect of so many of us in our town who have watched him turn things around and make great things happen. Even though I'm a tad leery of how this deal was sealed and what it cost the city, to know that the building is going to be restored and not torn down and turned into yet another parking lot or gas station, and very soon at that, is news we can all celebrate. The person we all hoped, dreamed and prayed would own this building now has it and although he hasn't yet submitted his plans for it, I know him to be an honorable, good, decent person who will have something in hand very soon that will turn this former eyesore into a major showplace and will be the last piece of the puzzle in a complete transformation of our downtown. We can finally celebrate the end of watching that old building continuing to crumble into sad decay. I predict that by this time next year, we're going to see a beautiful landmark filled to capacity with bustling businesses that we can all be proud of.
No comments:
Post a Comment