SYDNEY BRINK/DEMOCRAT
The Broadway Arms, 201 E. Broadway Blvd., once quality apartments, has sat vacant for years, a victim of legal entanglements, neglect and bad luck.
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Broadway Arms transformed from luxury apartments to a building no one wants
October 03, 2009 10:47 PM
Sedalia Democrat
It’s a building without an owner.
The Broadway Arms building at 210 E. Broadway Blvd. has sat vacant for more than a decade. A rear patio has caved into the underground parking garage, and city workers have created a plywood fence to keep vagrants out.
Windows on the second and third floors are broken. Most of the first floor windows are covered with boards.
Inside, nearly every piece of glass and mirrors have been shattered. Paint and plaster hang in chunks from the walls and ceiling. Trash, mostly beer cans, litter many rooms and hallways. Amongst the trash are the remnants of the building’s former tenants. A fire charred the inside of several rooms in 2000.
Headboards, mattresses, couches and dressers remain in some rooms. Polaroid photos, pink plastic curlers, pieces of a chess set, newspapers, magazines and cassette tapes also can be found throughout the building. In one room, clothes still hang in a bureau.
The basement, which was turned into a kitchen, is home to an organ with the letters of the musical notes written on the keys. Tables and chairs are still assembled in a cafeteria style and a sign posted at the kitchen door describes the “coffee policy,” which included a two-cup limit with no service between meals.
The property racked up at one point more than $800,000 in federal, state and local tax liens.
So, who is responsible for the vacant building, its contents and the tax liens?
There is no clear answer and nobody seems to even want the property.
Some may consider the Sedalia Pettis County Redevelopment Corp. the rightful owner. However, a bank and a mortgage company could also lay claim to the building, but choose not to take possession.
Dean Construction built Broadway Arms in the 1940s or 1950s.
“They were actually upscale apartments,” said George Esser, chairman of the redevelopment corporation.
Esser remembers delivering newspapers to the apartments as a child. The building featured an underground parking garage and a patio courtyard.
“Over the years it went downhill,” Esser said.
Lester Shanks bought the building in 1977 for $180,000. It later became an assisted living facility.
“He refinanced it a few times and got into tax trouble,” Esser said.
Meanwhile, the redevelopment company was formed as a means to save the Trust Building, at Fourth Street and Ohio Avenue. Shanks filed a quitclaim deed in the Pettis County Courthouse in April 2001.
Esser and the board of the redevelopment corporation were unaware of Shanks actions until alerted to the deed by then commissioner Todd Smith. Shanks has since died.
The redevelopment corporation has no liability for the building since it was deeded without making the entity aware.
“My attorney’s opinion is that we don’t own it,” Esser said.
At the time, the property had a mortgage with a bank for about $180,000 and second one with a mortgage company for $285,000. Plus, back taxes since 1993 from the federal, state, county and city governments totaled nearly $800,000.
Eventually, the bank foreclosed on the property and attempted to sell it on the courthouse steps. Nobody bid on it, so the building fell back to the possession of the bank.
“But they never filed a deed on it,” Esser said.
The mortgage company has since been bought by another company, which doesn’t have any records from the Broadway Arms transaction.
The city also has had a difficult time establishing ownership of the property.
“The challenge really is determining the responsible parties and having them realize it is in their best interest to move on the property,” Community Development Director John Simmons said.
A title search in June showed the quitclaim deed to the redevelopment corporation and the second mortgage. Simmons said the city’s first priority in regards to the building is public safety.
“We’re merely looking at the code enforcement,” Simmons said.
The city has no ownership stake in the building, although that is a common misperception.
“We would also really like to push redevelopment of that property” because it’s an existing structure, he said.
The federal tax liens have expired. The Pettis County Collector’s office shows $58,000 is owed in back taxes between 1990 and 2008. That total doesn’t include other fines or interest.
Esser tried to clear the title. He also tried to negotiate a deal with Putting Roofs Over People’s Heads (PROP) to use the building as a homeless shelter, but that venture fell flat.
The redevelopment corporation doesn’t want a penny for the property. Esser said he would just like to see the property redeveloped, which would require satisfying any debt or tax liens still associated with the property.
“All the sudden I’m hearing sparked interest about the Trust Building and that building,” he said.
The building could qualify for federal and state historic tax credits. Esser said the age of the building and the “nice detail” and art deco trim make it historically significant.
Both Simmons and Esser think the structural integrity of the building is good, but needs renovations inside.
