Developer Dave Ball has 90 days to get a roof on the Pythian Castle or risk paying back the $274,300 loan the Lucas County Land Bank gave him when he bought the downtown building in 2016.
“We’re really close,” Mr. Ball said. “It’s our goal to have the roof on by the end of next month. I think this year the roof will be on, the floors will be done, and we’ll get started looking for a tenant.”
The 130-year-old castle was built by the fraternal organization Knights of Pythias, which left in 1951 after selling the property to Greyhound Lines. The building has been vacant since 1974, and the land bank acquired it through a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure in 2013.
When Mr. Ball bought the structure at Jefferson Avenue and Ontario Street from the land bank for $300, it came with strings attached. He was to use the $274,300 the nonprofit gave him to replace the roof and stabilize the castle’s tower. If he didn’t get a certificate of occupancy by Nov. 18, 2019, he’d have to pay the money back.
That deadline came and went, and the building’s top floor remains exposed to the elements. But land bank officials agreed to give Mr. Ball an extension. The roof must be on by late February and the building must be safe, nuisance-free, and ready to attract tenants by Nov. 30, 2020.
David Mann, the land bank’s president and CEO, said the historic building is a downtown asset that deserves to be restored.
“I think we’re cautiously optimistic that everything is going to move forward,” he said. “We expected it to take longer than we originally agreed to. Four years instead of three years is still pretty good progress for a building that was probably within a couple of years of just falling down into itself in 2016.”
Mr. Ball agreed to place $25,000 in an escrow account that the land bank will control should he not meet his deadline.
“It is a protection for the taxpayers and for the land bank to ensure that, ultimately, a roof goes on the Pythian Castle,” Mr. Mann said.
The building deteriorated significantly in the 45 years it sat vacant. When Mr. Ball and his crews walked inside in 2016, they found a cavernous structure with a pile of rubble on the ground floor; the roof had caved in and over the years took five floors down with it.
“I expected it to be in bad shape. I expected it to need a whole lot of work, and it did. It’s just taken longer to do some of the work,” Mr. Ball said.
Crews have so far rebuilt the castle’s five floors and staircases and installed one-third of the roof. They underestimated how structurally damaged some of the building’s interior brick walls were and have spent more time and money than expected rebuilding the brick and stabilizing the structure to ready it for the final roof installation.
“The land bank has been great. They understand what we’ve been going through,” Mr. Ball said.
He hopes to attract residential development on the top two floors and retail or office space on floors one through three. The Knights of Pythias used the third floor as their ballroom, and Mr. Ball believes it could be converted to spacious offices or apartments.
There’s also the possibility that a single business could be interested in utilizing the entire building.
“I have always loved this building. I felt so strongly that it needed to be saved,” he said. “The land bank’s motivation was to help me do that, and I think we’ve accomplished that.”
Mr. Ball also owns the former Greyhound building next door and the parking lot in the back. He said he is close to announcing a new tenant at the Greyhound building.
First Published November 26, 2019, 5:18 p.m.
