Residents of a downtown Greenwood neighborhood say a large vacant house is an eyesore and a menace to their community, but due to its location, the city won’t do much about it.
The house is old. And worn down. And maybe even crumbling, said Kevin Steinmetz, Greenwood’s capital projects manager. Residents complain. Police respond to criminal activity at the property. City officials receive tons of calls about it.
But because it is not located on a main thoroughfare, the city has no plans to demolish it, something they have done to several other houses that are located within the city’s floodplain. Properties located on highly visible corridors take priority, Steinmetz said.
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The 4,500-square-foot house sits at the corner of Broadway and Washington streets. Residents often refer to it as the “old hotel.” Rumor has it it once served as a boarding house for the railroad, which runs nearby. The structure was turned into apartments sometime in the 1930s or 1940s.
Assessors aren’t sure when exactly it was built, but they assume it was sometime during the 19th century. Its Zillow listing says 1800, but that’s not right, Steinmetz said. City officials know that, because neighboring homes were built in the early early- to mid-1900s.
Passerby will notice the property boarded up, then not, then boarded up again. This has been the cycle for years, Steinmetz said. It attracts rodents, squatters and drug activity, residents say. Since 2014, when it was reportedly condemned, Greenwood police have responded to at least 15 reports of criminal activity at the house at 200 E. Broadway St.
Those reports run the gamut, but most are for criminal mischief, such as shattered windows, or that the building is unsecured. On May 8, someone called and reported that the front and back doors were damaged and unable to be secured, according to a Greenwood police report. Greenwood code enforcement was attempting to contact the owner to have the doors secured, the report said.
In 2016, street department workers found two stolen wallets at the property, according to another Greenwood police report.
And in January 2015, police identified the apartment building as condemned, unsecured and with free flowing water due to damaged faucets. Repeated attempts to contact the owner were unsuccessful, that report said.
The former owners abandoned the property and failed to keep up with property taxes and related fees, at one point owing more than $66,000 in taxes and penalties. In December, a property management group out of Carmel bought it for $26,500 and tried to sell it as a multi-family home, which it technically is. It is split into several units, but it was never zoned for that.
Now, city staff say in order for it to be renovated as apartments, it needs to be zoned properly. But the city council, planning commission and board of zoning appeals all said no to a proposed rezone and use variance.
“When ownership changes, we become aware of those non-conforming uses,” Steinmetz said. “Essentially, we need it to change hands to enforce it.”
During a recent city council meeting, council member Linda Gibson, who represents District 1 where the house is located, encouraged anyone who witnesses suspicious activity at the house to call the non-emergency line at the Greenwood Police Department.
“This has been a bad situation in that neighborhood for a long time,” Gibson said. “The parking situation is definitely a bad situation.”
Matthew Smith, who serves on the planning commission and board of zoning appeals, and is running against Gibson for the District 1 seat on the city council, says that won’t cut it. Residents would be calling non-stop, he said.
“We’re at a crossroads,” Smith said. “The only improvement would be to take it down.”
He estimates it would cost about $12,000 to demolish it.
Smith lives a quarter mile from the property, and has since 2014. The building has not be occupied or habitable since then, he said. Before then, it was an eight-unit apartment complex, but there aren’t enough parking spaces to support that, which is part of the reason city officials voted against the rezone.
He has not ventured inside the house, but his neighbors have, and they’ve found evidence of heroin use, he said. He would like to see it demolished and turned into a dog park or community garden, he said.
“Leaving it the way it is is just untenable,” Smith said. “I get the heartache. While it’s sad to see something with that much history go, it really is the only option that makes sense.”
But the city has no plans to demolish it — at least for now. Here’s why: Although the house is located in the Stormwater Buyout Zone, a flood-prone area in which the city has received federal funding to help buy and demolish houses, eventually making way for a neighborhood park, the redevelopment commission has not bought properties in neighborhoods because they’re not as visible as those on main thoroughfares, Steinmetz said.
“There are a lot higher targets in terms of flood risk,” he said.
The house is listed on Zillow again, this time as a single-family home, and has a hefty price tag for the condition that it’s in: $64,900. It has eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms, and the company is marketing it as a potential bed and breakfast.
Simple Quarters, LLC, which currently owns the property, did not return requests for comment.
“The problem with that is they bought it hastily and with a lack of diligence. Basically, they didn’t do their research,” Steinmetz said.
For a long time, the property was grandfathered as a multi-family development, but once it sat vacant for six months, it lost that status, said Bill Peeples, planning director.
No one is likely to buy it and renovate it as a single-family home. It’s too big, Peeples said.
“What looks like a grand house on the outside has been completely run down,” Steinmetz said. “There comes a point when there’s no turning back. It has seen decades of disinvestment. Ideally, in a perfect world, someone will want that large of a house. But it would take a very large checkbook.”
