City gets offer for old Rose Furniture building

The building at 36 S. Main St., also known as the former Rose Furniture building, has been targeted for demolition by the city. In May, the Middletown Historic Commission voted 5-2 to permit demolishing most of the building except for the facade, though the city’s Community Revitalization Department was seeking a total demolition.

The city, which acquired the building in 2011, is still seeking proposals to demolish the building while saving the facade and without saving the facade, both options though will be upwards of $300,000 or more. Demolition would be abnormally expensive because the adjacent buildings, just like the other buildings in the block, are connected, and demolition would expose interior walls.

But the Historic Rose Furniture LLC wants to put the breaks on that option.

This past Friday, the group presented an offer to acquire the building and restore it. The group includes Mike Robinette, the city’s former economic development director, and Steve Coon, the developer that took the Mercantile building in downtown Hamilton from the jaws of demolition to thriving loft apartments.

That offer includes a $200,000 grant from the city that would transfer to Historic Rose Furniture once the building is stabilized, which could happen in several months.

One concern some on council had is if the group will ask for additional money, which Robinette said they “don’t expect to,” but will seek state and historic tax credits.

The project could see upwards of $1 million being invested on restoration, which Robinette said is based on spending $100 on 10,000 square feet, excluding the basement and part of the back of the building that will likely be demolished to make way for on-site parking.

Robinette said it could take 12 to 18 months to build out the project.

Coon could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

City council will be presented with the offer at the Aug. 6 meeting, and only after the city’s legal department conducts additional due diligence on the offer.

But something needs to be done soon, said city Economic Development Director Denise Hamet, as a hole in the Rose Furniture roof is causing damage to the building to the north at 34 S. Main St.

“But either way, it’s going to cost us some money,” she said.

Hamet said the city needs to decide what option will “cost us the least amount of money and to leverage whatever we need to spend for this to create something bigger and better.”

There is one fairly large similarity the Rose Furniture building has with Hamilton’s Mercantile building, said Mike Dingeldein, an architect in Hamilton.

“That’s exactly how the Mercantile building looked five years ago,” he said.

The Mercantile building, which is nearly 3½ times the square feet as the Rose building, was also a dilapidated eye sore in the city’s downtown. Dingeldein has been impressed with Coon’s ability to take the Mercantile building from the doorstep of demolition to a jewel of downtown Hamilton.

“He’s very, very good at dealing with existing, dilapidated buildings,” Dingeldein said. “The city (of Hamilton) was thinking there was nothing that could be done with it.”

Now there are 29 loft apartments and three businesses, including Dingeldein’s, in the Mercantile building.

THE PROPOSAL

• Historic Rose Furniture LLC will immediately stabilize the building
• Once permits are pulled, work will take six to eight weeks
• City pay $200,000 for the initial repairs to stabilize the building
• The building will transfer after the stabilization is finished
• Renovation will be a mixed use of retail and residential 

Source: City of Middletown