Due to a lack of progress, city staff is giving the property owners of three East High Street buildings until late October to decide how to remedy the collapsing downtown building or else the city will intercede.
Larry Burkhardt, Jefferson City building official, sent a letter to Andrew Neidert, property owner of 200 E. High St., Carol Wieberg, property owner of 202 E. High St., and Jay Seaver, property owner of 204 E. High St., on Oct. 8 requesting a meeting to discuss a solution for the three buildings.
Burkhardt told the News Tribune on Tuesday afternoon that all three property owners have agreed to a meeting. He requested the meeting since "no progress has been made (by) the property owners to abate the dangerous situation," according to the letter, given anonymously to the News Tribune. Burkhardt confirmed the letter with the News Tribune on Tuesday afternoon.
Neidert plans to demolish 200 E. High St. after the west wall, facing Madison Street, partially collapsed in June due to water washing out the mortar that held the bricks together. Neidert was working out details of the project with the property owners of 202 and 204 E. High St., Burkhardt said previously.
The property at 202 E. High St. shares a wall with 200 E. High St., Burhardt said Tuesday. While the structures at 200 and 204 E. High St. were originally built as "structurally independent buildings," he notes, 202 E. High St. was built between the buildings and is "structurally dependent upon them."
While he does not know the extent of the damage to the shared wall between 202 and 204 E. High St., Burkhardt said, he had to "think of the worst possible case" if 200 E. High St. collapsed.
"Eventually, if nothing is done, 200 (E. High St.) will collapse and that will take the structural support from 202 (E. High St.)," Burkhardt told the News Tribune on Tuesday. "So if you're losing support on one side of the structure, it will rip out and pull out the joints that are attached to 204 (E. High St.) It would be like a domino effect. Sometimes you line up the dominoes and some of them fall down, but sometimes you miss one. It depends on the angle and the construction and how it's connected together."
Burkhardt said he did not know why the property owners were not making quick progress to remedy the situation.
Neidert did not return the News Tribune's call for comment. Wieberg and Seaver could not be reached for comment by publication.
In the letter, Burkhardt offered a few solutions. One was to leave the wall shared by 200 and 202 E. High St. so that it supports 202 E. High St. Burkhardt notes they would need to investigate this option further to ensure the wall is still stable.
The second option Burkhardt suggested was placing interior framing in 202 E. High St. to "remove the vertical load off the party walls." To do this, there would need to be improvements to the foundation and a new exterior west wall, he added. This option would allow 202 E. High St. to be an independent structure.
The third option, he noted, is disconnecting 202 E. High St. from 204 E. High St. and demolish the structures at 200 and 202 E. High St. at the same time.
"This could be the safest and most economical course," Burkhardt states in the letter, adding more construction details are needed to ensure 204 E. High St. would still be structurally stable if they pursue this option.
The property owners have until Oct. 24 to reach a solution, Burkhardt states.
"If some resolution is not made by the property owners by October 24, 2018, the City of Jefferson will start the process of ordering the repair or demolition of the 200 and 202 E. High and possibly 204 E. High," Burkhardt states.
He added if the city does have to take action, its choice is to demolish 200 and 202 E. High St. Until he knows the extent of the damage to 204 E. High St., Burkhardt said, he was not sure what action the city would take regarding the building.
If the city does abate the dangerous buildings, Burkhardt adds, costs would be placed upon the properties as a special tax bill.
"We're trying to be respectful to the community and to the people who have bought those buildings and put money in it. But we have to look out for the greater good," Burkhardt said. "People want to use downtown, and right now, this is not acceptable for downtown Jefferson City in the Missouri State Capitol."
While barricades surrounding the partially collapsed wall guides traffic and pedestrians around the area, bricks have been slowly falling away, making the gap larger.
City staff also noticed the west parapet of 200 E. High St. is starting to bulge, Burkhardt's letter states. He notes he believes "this section is failing faster due to the building envelope being damaged." If that section bulges out, that could cause more bricks and possibly parts of the roof to collapse.
Offices for the law firms of Berry Wilson LLC and Turnbull & Stark LLC are housed at 200 E. High St.; 202 E. High St. is home to Love2Nourish and MO Juice.
Matt Green is currently working on renovating 204 E. High St. in hopes of opening up Bar Vino.