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Downtown building owner rebuffs city’s claims

Posted 3/2/22

A downtown property owner sent a willful rebuke to the City of Fayette regarding the city’s consideration of reclaiming possession of his buildings. Brooks Ross asserted in a letter dated …

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Downtown building owner rebuffs city’s claims

Posted

A downtown property owner sent a willful rebuke to the City of Fayette regarding the city’s consideration of reclaiming possession of his buildings. Brooks Ross asserted in a letter dated February 15 that he has met the city’s requirements to take full possession of the buildings.

The correspondence came in response to a letter he received from the city’s attorney, Nathan Nickolaus. The city is considering the option to take back possession of the buildings via a quitclaim deed.

In the tersely-worded letter, Ross explained that he has shored up the building to prevent further deterioration to the buildings and passed an engineer’s evaluation of the properties. “I also cleaned up all of the debris from the initial collapse that blocked the back alley for almost a year because the city was unable to do so, even though it created a huge safety concern for all patrons and tenants along Main St,” he wrote.

Commonly referred to as the Colonial Mercantile buildings, they are located on the southeast side of the courthouse square along Main Street in Fayette. In September 2011, the city designated the buildings’ conditions as “dangerous.” The owner at the time, Paul Cristal of Florida, claimed he did not have adequate funds to comply with the city’s order to repair the building, and therefore forfeited ownership to the city via quitclaim deed. In January of 2012, the city took possession of the building for the price of $1, and then turned around and sold the building for the same price to Ross on the condition that he would make necessary repairs to the building.

“Since then I have continued my due diligence in restoring the building to a safe and satisfactory condition with absolutely nothing less than uncooperation and purposeful hindrance from Fayette’s city hall,” Ross wrote in his letter. “The city that I was trying to help resolve a problem completely turned their backs on me once I took full possession of the buildings.”

Ross did not elaborate on exactly how the city hindered his work on the buildings. He wrote in his reply to the city that he concurs that there is still much work to be done to the buildings, and that he has also shown the buildings to “dozens” of interested buyers who he hopes are more financially suited to take on such a project. 

“I accepted these buildings as an effort to help the city of Fayette cleanup (sic) a bad situation that they themselves were not able to resolve on their own,” he wrote.

Ross added that the city is more than welcome to make an offer to buy the buildings.

An engineer from MECO Engineering made an exterior inspection of the buildings on Monday, February 21, but has not yet discussed his findings with the city. Nickolaus told the city council at its most recent meeting on Tuesday, February 22 that the city can obtain an administrative warrant to go into the buildings.

“Ultimately, it’s like we’ve had to deal with before, we may need to get inside the building,” Nickolaus told the council. “We still have that quitclaim deed in our back pocket. But I’m not wanting to seize control of the property, even if I was sure we could do it, if it’s just going to be a huge money pit.”

No decision was made by the city council. It will presumably wait to learn the findings of MECO’s exterior inspection before taking further action.

Ross apparently renovated an upstairs apartment where he once lived. The first floor is dedicated to a workshop where he designs high-end metal works. However, Ross no longer lives in Fayette. It is not known the last time he was inside the building. One of the ground-floor’s windows was broken and has been boarded up for some time.

The council meets regularly at 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at City Hall. Meetings are open and the public is invited.

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