One of the deteriorating icons along Jefferson City's historic Capitol Avenue is facing a Thanksgiving day deadline: make repairs or the city will intercede.
The property at 427 E. Capitol Ave., also known as the former Buescher Memorial Home, has areas of its roof and exterior walls exhibiting areas of rot and deterioration.
Mayor Carrie Tergin recently encouraged the Housing Authority to look into the property's condition and pursue efforts to save the historic home, which is part of the East Capitol Avenue Urban Renewal Area. The urban renewal area includes 116 pieces of property in downtown Jefferson City; up to 40 of them could be condemned through eminent domain as part of an effort to fight blight in the area.
Eminent domain is a process for government agencies to take control of private property. It can be done for a variety of reasons.
The Housing Authority's newest eminent domain lawsuit is still in early phases, after filing a lawsuit with the court in July. The court has appointed a committee of commissioners to assess the value of the properties. If the court approves the request for eminent domain, then the assessed value is used to set how much the Housing Authority would pay for each property.
After the Housing Authority acquires a property, it goes on the market. Along with an offer to purchase, the Housing Authority requests a rehabilitation plan for the property with an estimated two-year completion timeline from a potential developer.
Since 2019, the Jefferson City Housing Authority has purchased nine properties in the area with financial help from the city. Many of the blighted homes had been vacant for years; they had fallen into disrepair and became targets of vandals or home for feral animals.
The Housing Authority is in its third round of eminent domain lawsuits; this time, it involves four properties: 413-415, 417, 419, and 517-519 E. Capitol Ave.
The Historic City of Jefferson is in conversations about helping people interested in any of the historic properties on Capitol Avenue with the money necessary to purchase/renovate the home.
Donna Deetz, HCJ president, said these are early stage conversations because the organization needs to figure out the best way to go about offering that help.
One of those homes in the future could be the Buescher Memorial Home, which Tergin wants the Housing Authority board to consider acquiring through eminent domain.
"The Buescher Memorial Home, the funeral home, is something that has been talked about a bit, that seems to get some attention," she said. "Like Ivy Terrace across the street, those are both fairly significant properties.
"They're large properties, they're somewhat known on Capitol Avenue, recognizable, and are some of the historic buildings that are recognized on Capitol Avenue," she said.
The funeral home has been cited in the past for minor safety issues.
According to city records, Buescher owes $2,845 in tax liens - essentially a charge for work done by the city - on the property with part of that dating back to 2019.
The liens consist of $1,650 in fees for registering the property as an abandoned building, $1,110 for lawn maintenance and $430 to cover up graffiti.
Buescher has paid at least $1,620 in liens previously; $645 for boarding up the house in 2014 and $975 for two instances of lawn maintenance - once in 2014 and once in 2019.
Last month, the city's attention turned to more serious safety concerns for the property during an abatement hearing.
The biggest issue, city officials said, is the east side of the building and its front porches.
Building inspector Dave Helmick said the columns on the porches are deteriorating, and the ceiling joists and supporting structures are rotting.
The hearing also found other serious conditions exist:
- The roof is damaged and exposes the interior to the elements;
- The doors, windows and exterior walls are deteriorating; and
- Deteriorating windows, porches and sections of the roof may become fall hazards if left in their current states.
Based on photos presented at the hearing, chunks of the porch's columns are missing, part of the roof to one porch is falling and another section of porch roof is missing.
After the abatement hearing, Buescher, the property owner, had 30 days to fix the safety issue before the city could step in.
Those 30 days expire Thursday.
"If no action has been taken, then the city will get estimates to see what it will cost either to repair, stabilize or remove the damaged and failing attachments," Helmick said Friday.
In this instance, the building isn't a candidate for demolition of the entire building, but the city could demolish the porches to reduce the safety risk, he said. The cost of work would go back to the property owner in the form of more tax liens.
Tergin said Thursday's deadline could be a decision point for the property's future.
"We know how these things often start as buildings deteriorate and then they get further into deterioration," she said. "We know this building evidently it's going down that path.