JJCL owns Weiler Building (2/14/04)

The deal is done.

John Jay Center for Learning now owns the Weiler Building in downtown Portland and plans to renovate the neglected structure, making it a central campus.

Former Portland residents Paul and Sally Detwiler, New Albany, deeded the title to the building to JJCL Friday during a meeting with JJCL board president Doug Inman in Louisville, Ky.

“By deeding the property, we proactively insure that the building will be saved,” the Detwilers said in a prepared statement. “Our plan has always been to renovate the building, and our hope is that the John Jay Center for Learning can renovate the building for its use as an educational center.”

The Detwilers’ action comes about a week after foreclosure proceedings were initiated by JJCL in Jay Circuit Court. JJCL acquired the mortgage on the building so that it could get control of the property.

“It’s a very important day not only for John Jay Center for Learning but for the city of Portland,” Inman said by cell phone while en route back to Jay County.

JJCL is expected to seek an Indiana Department of Commerce planning grant to develop detailed construction drawings for re-using the former department store as an educational facility.

The learning center board had explored the possibility of building a new structure in 2003, but the price tag of that project was estimated at $3.5 million.

An architectural study of the Weiler Building, on the other hand, indicated that renovation would cost between $1 million and $1.4 million. That study was funded by a $2,500 grant from the Indiana Historic Landmarks Foundation which was matched by local individuals.

Kato Smith and Associates, Anderson, estimated demolition of the Weiler Building would cost about $200,000 and concluded that restoring the 49,500-square-foot building was “highly recommended.”

JJCL has been pursuing acquisition of the mortgage on the property since early last fall. According to last week’s court filing, the Detwilers owed $39,879 in principal and $5,981 in interest on the building.

Unpaid property taxes on the building total $24,597.50. “We’ll work on that with the county,” Inman said. “That’s the next step.”

The art deco-style Weiler Building was constructed about 1925 as the home of the Weiler Brothers Department Store. It was the successor to an earlier structure which was destroyed by fire. The building, Smith’s study noted, is primarily steel and concrete.

While there has been water damage and evidence of neglect, Smith concluded there has been very little damage to the building’s structural integrity.

After the Weiler store closed in the late 1970s, the building stood vacant a few years before being acquired by the Detwilers. It was later the home of Holthouse Furniture, then Heilig-Meyers Furniture, but has been vacant since early 2001.

The JJCL received an anonymous donation of $1 million in 1999 to be used for a learning center campus in downtown Portland.[[In-content Ad]]