The former Mickey Finn’s Pub, which has been closed since 2013, is set to go to auction next week but its future remains uncertain.

“It’s going to take a very special buyer,” said Beth Rose, the president of Beth Rose Real Estate and Auctions.

The Irish-themed pub opened in 1998 in a renovated building in Toledo’s Vistula neighborhood that dates from the Civil War. It was well known for drawing local and national musical acts but closed when its namesake owner decided to sell the business. The sprawling property to be sold includes four parcels that take up nearly a whole block.

Though the property has been listed with several commercial real estate firms, it never did change hands.

Mr. Finn said he could have kept waiting for someone to buy the business, but decided to go another direction this year following an incident that left his adult son nearly completely paralyzed. Jason Finn was Boogie-boarding while vacationing in Puerto Rico when he suffered a severe spinal cord injury.

“He’s getting the therapy but it’s really very costly,” Mr. Finn said.

He hopes the sale of the pub can help offset some expenses Jason Finn and his partner Jeni Belt have accrued since the January accident.

The auction is to be held Thursday afternoon. No sales price has been given, though when the pub was first listed for sale, the asking price was $95,000 for the business and $200,000 for the building.

Ms. Rose said the property has benefited from recent work and cleanup and is in good shape. It’s essentially a turn-key business, she said.

“It’s one of our landmarks in Toledo,” Ms. Rose said. “I just think that it’s so eager for a new buyer to come in there, bring the acts back in, the music and the arts, and you can take and turn that whole district around to something cultural that’s fun with entertainment. That’s really what we’re wanting.”

The Vistula neighborhood — Toledo’s oldest — has a reputation as being crime ridden and dangerous, but Mr. Finn has rejected that notion. He still lives there, and he’s hopeful that a new owner can breathe new life into his vision.

“It would be great if someone could pick up the baton of what I was trying to do, and that’s pretty much take the center of downtown Vistula on Lagrange and turn it into a viable business stretch,” he said.

Contact Tyrel Linkhorn at tlinkhorn@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.

First Published September 10, 2016, 4:00 a.m.