City, Beal come to agreement on Thompson Building

By Dan DuChene
Apr. 5, 2010    ·    11:18 a.m.

Ypsilanti City Council will be discussing an agreement worked out between city administration and the owners of the Thompson Block in Depot Town.

The agreement comes after City Council denied an extension of the Traffic Control Order for building early last month and requested the city attorney to pursue legal action to have the scaffolding that supports the burned-out portion of the building removed from public land.

The TCO expired March 3, a day after City Council denied a third extension.

City Council denied the extension at the request of City Manager Ed Koryzno, who said city staff and Stewart Beal could not agree on a written agreement to create a time-line to permanently remove the scaffolding from sidewalks and streets adjacent to the property.

Beal is the managing member of Historic Equities LLC, which owns the former Civil War barracks on the northeast corner of River and Cross streets.

At the City Council meeting in March, Beal said the proposed agreement from the city encroached too far into his company's private business affairs and created unrealistic construction requirements. City Attorney John Barr said the agreement was created to ensure the building would not stand indefinitely in Depot Town as a dilapidated structure.

The agreement was a 15-point document that required to have all scaffolding removed by May 1, have financial backing to begin work to completely restore the building in July and have all work completed by the following year.

The proposal also required Beal to establish a bond to cover the cost of the building's demolition if contract stipulations were not met.

Beal presented a plan in February that would see River Street completely clear of scaffolding by March 15, Cross Street completely cleared by Aug. 30 and sidewalks completely cleared by Nov. 30. He said the time-line could not be changed and called the construction stipulations in the city-proposed agreement impossible.

Beal told the Citizen sometime later he was meeting with Koryzno to come to an agreement out of court. In a letter to City Council, Koryzno said an agreement had been reached and recommended City Council approve the agreement Tuesday.

The new agreement is a 12-point document that requires the scaffolding on River Street to be moved 19 feet closer to the building within 30 days, all scaffolding to be removed from the building within 180 days and to begin work on rehabilitating the structure within 120 days.

The performance bond that can be used to demolish the building if requirements are not met is still in the new agreement.

Related articles:
City Council denies extension for Thompson Block
Beal upset with City Council decision