Michael Stough

Note: Cincinnati's Historic Conservation Board will hear the Stough Group's demolition request at 3 p.m. Monday at 805 Central Ave., seventh floor.

Michael Stough is president and CEO of the Stough Group.

I have worked on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine my entire career and witnessed dramatic changes in the neighborhood over the past four decades. Our block of Main Street – between Central Parkway and 12th Street – once bustled with retail activity. There were an abundance of furniture and department stores: Woolworths, Jupiter's Dime Store, Sapadin's Coat and Dress Shop. One by one they closed.

The Davis Furniture store was the last to shutter. I watched from my office window as the building went vacant and began a long downward slide. The windows began to fall out; bricks rained down on the parking lot south of the building; and the paint started peeling off the walls.

The Cincinnati Building Department did not enforce code violations or ensure that the building was boarded up. The owner walked away from the property and the bank did not foreclose, avoiding the city's orders. To my knowledge, none of the neighborhood organizations stepped up. Not the Over-the-Rhine Community Council, not the Over-the-Rhine Foundation, not the Cincinnati Preservation Association. No one.

As the building declined, we invested years of hard work and over $6 million to rehabilitate all the buildings across from Davis, now known as the Hanke Exchange. We maintained these buildings to the highest standard. We signed institutional tenants – groups like Teach For America, US Bank, Grifols, an international pharmaceutical company, as well as many others. In total, these tenants employ more than 100 people, pay taxes to the city and contribute to the vitality of the area.

Last year, my patience came to an end. The Davis Building was depressing the value of our real estate and hurting the image of our block. Prospective tenants regularly brought up the Davis Building as a negative in their decision to rent space in the Hanke Exchange. This building needed to be rehabilitated or demolished. The status quo was intolerable.

My son Scott and I began discussions with the Urban Conservator, the Building Department and the bank that held the mortgage. Finally, after months of discussion, the bank realized its greatest liability would result from inaction. So it foreclosed on the property to be sold at sheriff's auction for no less than the auditor's appraised value. We went to the auction and bought the building.

With the help of an architect and a structural engineer, we toured the building and found it dilapidated beyond imagination. The estimate for restoration and rehabilitation costs was $2.8 million. Based on our experience leasing Main Street office spaces, exploring apartment and condominium development, and factoring in all available tax credits, we realized that the Davis Building could not be profitably rehabilitated. Because of this, we applied for a demolition permit.

Since that decision, we have not received a legitimate offer for purchase, only bad-faith offers from companies who have demolished plenty of historic buildings. We have encountered hostility from the Office of the Urban Conservator, which has attacked the honesty of our calculations. When we asked how and where we had gone wrong, Larry Harris replied he had seen buildings saved in worse condition, and that it should not cost that much. No analysis, just conjecture. To prove our point we hired HGC, a well-respected contractor, to develop cost figures for restoring and repairing the building. Its estimate was $3.2 million – $400,000 more than our estimate. Stabilizing the building alone would cost $1.5 million.

The bottom line: The Davis Building is not economically feasible to restore. Monday, I will ask the Historic Preservation Board to follow its own regulations and grant us the demolition permit we are due.