The city is considering taking the former McCrory’s Building located at 1306 11th Ave., by eminent domain to address years of neglect and codes violations. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

The city is planning to take a former downtown anchor building and the lot next door by eminent domain, so it can convey the properties for redevelopment, after years of ownership has led only to deterioration, despite prodding by the Department of Codes and Inspections.

The former McCrory’s 5 & 10, adjacent to ground formerly occupied by the Woolworth 5 & 10, is structurally sound, but the basement is full of water, there’s damage to walls, ceilings and staircases and the hardwood floors are buckling, said codes Director Rebecca Brown, speaking at a City Council meeting this week.

“We don’t want to end up in a situation with another property we have to tear down,” said Councilman Bruce Kelley, citing the recent demolition of the former Second Lutheran Church on Seventh Avenue. “I think there’s a chance this building can be saved.”

The current owner, McCrory’s LLC of New York City, has owned the 11th Avenue property since 2013, according to Brown.

The department issued an order to repair or demolish the structure in 2015, but the company appealed the order successfully, Brown said.

The owners obtained a permit in 2016 to repair the roof, but the property declined enough anyway that the Fire Department cut off access in 2017 to a representative of the owner, who lives in the area, because of safety concerns, officials said.

The Fire Department en­­tered the building in March 2020 because of a carbon monoxide alarm in a neighboring structure, and code officials learned then that its “condition was not improved at all,” Brown said.

The department recently filed about 10 citations, she said.

“It’s the same conversations as six years ago,” said City Manager Ken Decker, citing a 2015 news article about the structure detailing its problems. “I hate having the same conversations year after year.”

Eminent domain is the only way the problem will get fixed, Decker said.

Some years ago, a developer from Harrisburg wanted the building to establish a restaurant and club, Kelley said. The current owners wanted to be the developers on that project, however, so the Harrisburg group backed out, he said.

A condemnation would require appraisals and an environmental assessment, with the owner compensated at fair market value — although it’s conceivable the property may have “negative” market value, Decker said.

A “voluntary conveyance” would be preferable, he said.

After condemnation, if the owner and city can’t come to terms, the matter would go to a board of view, said solicitor Tom Finn. If the owner is dissatisfied with the board’s decision, the matter would go to Common Pleas Court, Finn said.

The city owes it to nearby operations, which include The Clay Cup coffeehouse and the Sheetz Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence, to do its “best to clean up the blight,” said Councilman Dave Butterbaugh.

There are “a lot of wild cards” that could be involved with the proposed effort, Decker said.

That includes environmental cleanup of materials like asbestos, lead and substances that may have been part of an electrical substation that was in the building, he said.

There’s also the chronic groundwater in the basement — so much of it that the owner’s representative kept a boat there “for transportation,” Decker said.

The city would do well to work with the Altoona-Blair County Development Corp. to find a development partner, Decker said.

An “adaptive reuse” would be best, he said.

There’s likely to be lots of interest, Mayor Matt Pacifico said.

Bundling the property with the Woolworth ground would probably help make a deal more attractive, officials said.

Any potential developer would probably seek tax credits and tax abatements, Decker said.

A minimal goal would be to find a buyer to commit to stabilizing the structure for the time being, Decker said. “This is a thing we can fix; it’s going to take some resources.”