Ottumwa residents living near what remains of St. Joseph Hospital have a lot of colorful ways to describe the half-demolished building and rubble surrounding it.

Most often they liken the hospital — most of its exterior walls removed, exposing the skeleton inside — to notorious war-ravaged cities like Sarajevo, Beruit and Aleppo.

"It looks like a bombed-out structure,” said Michael Carpenter, whose house backs up to the property.

A sign promising “luxury living” sits nearby.

But construction has been at a standstill for seven months, the result of a dispute between developer Blackbird Investments and the demolition contractor, Elder Corporation.

Neighbors once ready for high-end homes and townhouses to come to town now just want the eyesore removed.

Others worry about health issues. Neighbors claim that dust and debris blowing from the site have caused sore throats, breathing problems and other issues.

“When elephants fight, the grass suffers,” said John Richards, whose bedroom window overlooks the stalled project. “You’ve got a big company like Elder, a big company like Blackbird, and they’re having problems. It’s the people that suffer around that kind of a thing.”

Many question whether Blackbird's vision for high-end homes and townhomes will ever materialize.

“We very much understand the frustrations, and our own frustrations are right along with the residents of Ottumwa,” Blackbird Marketing Director Rachel Wegmann said in an email.

The Des Moines-based real estate firm says it has a new demolition contractor hired and work should resume in April.

Wegmann said the demolition should take four months, meaning the work will wrap up about a year after it started.

Project holds promise of needed housing

Ottumwa officials applauded in 2014 when Blackbird announced it wanted to convert St. Joseph Hospital into housing.

Like many other medium-sized Iowa cities, Ottumwa lacks quality housing stock to attract workers and employers.

Initial plans called for the five-story, brick building to be converted into apartments, but last year Blackbird announced it would demolish the long-vacant hospital and build nearly 70 homes and townhouses in its place.

The project was expected to cost $16.5 million. The first townhomes were expected to open this spring.

Kyle Flanagan, the city’s planning director, said developers avoided Ottumwa before Blackbird came to town. The project will provide housing for some of the estimated 3,000 to 5,000 people who work in Ottumwa but don’t live in the city, he said.

And Blackbird has the pedigree to pull off such a large project:

The company refurbished the Wilkins Building, the half of the former Younkers department store in downtown Des Moines that didn't perish in the 2014 fire.

It converted four century-old Army barracks and two horse stables at the historic Fort Des Moines into 142 apartments for low-income renters.

Work on its most ambitious project to date, a 33-story high-rise that will replace Kaleidoscope at the Hub in downtown Des Moines, is supposed to begin this spring.

Ottumwa had chipped in $3.5 million of tax increment financing rebates for the project.

Flanagan said the project will raise the city’s profile, and hopefully draw more developers to build in Ottumwa.

“Blackbird is certainly breaking the glass for us,” he said.

'Nothing has really gone as they said it would'

Elder began taking down the hospital by crane and wrecking ball in July, according to an Ottumwa Courier article. The work “seemingly stopped” in mid-August, the newspaper said.

In an interview with the Register, Ottumwa Mayor Tom Lazio said the dispute between Blackbird and Elder arose over conflicts involving the project’s timeline and payment. He said the city did not attempt to intervene.

But even before Elder departed, Lazio and neighbors noticed the demolition crews were struggling to dismantle the sturdy brick structure.

“They really didn’t do as much demolition as I would’ve expected,” Lazio said.

Completed in 1925, St. Joseph Hospital was operated by the Congregation of the Humility of Mary until 1987 when it merged with Ottumwa Regional Health Center. The St. Joseph building was used for offices and outpatient services until it closed in 2012.

The building was sold to Blackbird in January 2018.

Jim McFadden, Elder’s COO, did not respond to requests for comment. Blackbird's Wegmann also declined to comment on the dispute, saying the matter is currently in arbitration.

With the building halfway destroyed — and none of the debris removed — Elder left the site in August, according to neighbors.

Lazio told the Register that Blackbird has hired Drish Construction, a company based in Fairfield, to complete the demolition. Blackbird did not confirm that it had hired Drish, but it said a company would relaunch work on the site in April.

But the long delay has neighbors doubting whether the townhomes will ever be built.

“Nothing has really gone as they said it would, let’s put it that way,” said Jane Pohlson, who lives on Vanness Avenue, across the street from the hospital.

Dust blamed for sore throats, nose bleeds

Miriam and Greg Kenning planned to paint their Park Lane house last summer. But the dust and debris blowing off the St. Joseph site caused them to delay their plans indefinitely.

They and other neighbors have expressed concerns about the air quality around the hospital. The Kennings’ son contacted the state toxicologist, but he was told the Iowa Department of Public Health did not have the authority to intervene.

"The City of Ottumwa does have some oversight of the project and could be called to enforce any nuisance ordinance violations," State Toxicologist Stuart Schmitz wrote in an email response.

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Pohlson believes the eye pain, sore throats and respiratory problems she and her husband have experienced are caused by dust from the demolition.

Richards, who lives a few blocks away, said he’s had bloody noses and breathing issues because of the dust.

“I am most unhappy,” Pohlson emailed Blackbird in late July.

After receiving a complaint about the dust, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Washington, Iowa, office issued a letter to the company. The DNR said it wouldn’t conduct an on-site inspection, but it listed some best practices for limiting the spread of “fugitive dust,” including spraying water over rubble piles.

Richards and the Kennings said Elder crews didn't spray down the building with water during destruction. Drone video of the demolition shows dust billowing out of the building with each drop of the wrecking ball.

Nathan Stueve, who oversees asbestos abatement for the DNR, said he's received several complaints about the dust. But he said Blackbird complied with the proper standards for asbestos abatement.

"It’s part of the price of progress and construction," Lazio said. "You deal with it. I remember remodeling my own kitchen. We had dust throughout the house; you can’t escape some of that.”

'We just didn't make an issue out of it'

Greg Kenning, a former Wapello County supervisor, brought his concerns about the lack of progress on the project to the Ottumwa City Council in March.

He said the city should’ve stepped in.

“Do what city and county governments do,” he told the Register. “When somebody leaves a derelict, you tear it down for them and put the bill on their property taxes. If they still own it, they’ve got to pay for the demolition.”

Miriam Kenning agrees. She said the city would never let a debris pile remain unattended on her property for so long.

“I don’t understand why this isn't the same fairness for this process,” she said.

Lazio said the city has a nuisance code to deal with such situations, but cleaning up the St. Joseph site could have cost more than $1 million. That would’ve put too much of a financial burden on the city when there was no guarantee the cost could be recouped quickly, he said.

“We didn’t change any regulations or cut them any slack,” he said. “We just didn’t make an issue out of it.”

In her email, Wegmann said Blackbird held “numerous public meetings” during the halt in work and kept the city apprised at each step.

City officials said they were updated on the delay, but neighbors like Pohlson and Richards said they were in the dark.

"They never talked to us here,” Richards said.

Lazio said the project could have benefited from better communication with nearby property owners.

“I think they could’ve done a lot more with the neighbors,” he said. “That would’ve helped.”

'It's going to be worth it'

If Drish can get the building cleared over the coming months, Lazio said the neighbors will start to come around on the project.

“It’s going to be worth it when we get completed,” he said.

This week, Blackbird said the housing project is still on track. Wegmann said the company has moved forward with the financing, design and construction estimates for the work. It’s also obtained the needed zoning changes.

In Des Moines, Blackbird could soon start demolition work on the Kaleidoscope at the Hub to make way for its $100 million apartment tower. The company will likely oversee both demolition projects concurrently.

Sitting at his computer scrolling through photos of the hospital demolition from last summer, Richards recalls the dust blooms from the wrecking ball.

As the weather gets warmer, he worries about another summer lost to the thud of the wrecking ball and blowing debris.

“Every day when I wake up, that’s what I see,” he said.