The Toledo Museum of Art is encouraging area residents, especially those who live in the city’s Old West End, to offer input Friday about the future of a historic, U-shaped collection of five apartment buildings next to its Monroe Street campus that it is acquiring.

Lunch will be provided at the event, which will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library’s Kent branch, 3101 Collingwood Blvd.

If Monday night’s kickoff meeting at the Mott Branch Library is any indication, the buildings — collectively known as Museum Place Residences — still need a lot of lovin’ and attention. Only one person attended.

Brian Bodycombe, an Old Orchard resident, said he had no specific recommendation but agrees it would be best to tie their future use to the museum’s mission and the Old West End’s eclectic atmosphere.

“I’m very excited about it. It sounds very cool,” Mr. Bodycombe told Adam Levine, the museum’s associate director. “I would like to see it related to the arts community.”

Mr. Bodycombe said it is “generous of the museum to be so exploratory” by soliciting public opinion on how the aging structures could be rehabilitated and better incorporated into the Old West End’s neighborhood fabric.

Located across from the museum at Collingwood Boulevard and Monroe Street, Museum Place Residences has 62 units spread out across five brick buildings, of which 59 are habitable. Of those, about 32 are occupied.

The cluster of century-old buildings is at one of Toledo’s most prominent intersections. They are among the first structures visitors to that part of the city see when getting off the I-75 ramp.

Toledo City Council voted unanimously on Dec. 6 to let the museum take ownership of the buildings, which have fallen into a state of disrepair from insufficient maintenance in recent years. Closing is expected between February and March, at which point the museum will launch into another series of meetings to get more thoughts from residents.

Mr. Levine said Monday night the idea-gathering process will likely continue for about a year.

The museum has no immediate plans for the buildings and, as Mr. Levine said, isn’t in the business of real estate development or property management. It may take as many as three years stepping back and deciding what to do with the property, he said.

The museum’s motivation is to stabilize the buildings with necessary repairs to keep them viable while the museum keeps its long-term options open, Mr. Levine said. Ideally, he said, they could be converted into art studios or loft apartments — anything that would promote the arts.

“We expect we will be holding it for several years. We’re doing this as a service to the community,” Mr. Levine said. “We’re doing this because we’re stewards.”

All existing tenants will be allowed to stay, including those with low-income leases, and the museum is receptive to renting out unoccupied units in the interim to help generate more cash flow, Mr. Levine said.

He said the goal is to have future uses that complement activities of the museum, which houses one of the nation’s largest collections and opened its 36-acre site to the public in 1912. The museum was founded in 1901.

The property’s zoning would allow the buildings to have mixed uses as any combination of residential, commercial, or retail.

“The current tenants are protected,” Mr. Levine said. “We will look to taking on more tenants. Having the property stay vacant doesn’t help anyone.”

While saying there are “literally dozens of outcomes” for how the buildings could be eventually used, he said the most ideal situation would likely be some sort of a collaboration between the museum and a third-party developer.

He said the museum is determined to preserve their historic charm. While it doesn’t want to demolish the buildings, he conceded that can’t be ruled out, either.

“It is the museum’s official stance we want to see all five buildings preserved,” he said.

Three of the five buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum said. The properties had been carrying $3.5 million in debt and unpaid taxes.

The proposal is to transfer them from the city to the Lucas County Land Bank, then to the museum through a deed in lieu of foreclosure for $1. The museum said it will assume costs for improvements and maintenance once the transfer is complete.

The museum used a $25,200 Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority grant to assess the viability of taking ownership.

The Old West End Association has expressed concerns about the failing condition of the apartments for years, and previously expressed its support for museum ownership. Museum Director Brian Kennedy has said the acquisition could fit into the museum’s master plan to establish its campus as an urban parkland.

Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.

First Published January 10, 2017, 5:00 a.m.