Brownsville wants downtown buildings demolished
BROWNSVILLE — Brownsville Borough Council this week voted 5-1 to send a letter to Fayette County Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Andrew French, asking for downtown properties acquired by the authority to be prioritized for demolition.
Councilman James Lawver said he prepared a list of seven or eight structures under control of the Fayette County Redevelopment Authority that have been deemed structurally insufficient.
“These are ones that need immediate attention,” James Lawver said. “These buildings are unsafe. I wouldn’t want a firefighter to have to go in and fight a fi?re.”
James Lawver included the buildings between the former Eckerd’s and the Union Station Building in his list to come down. James Lawver said that if someone is interested in coming in and saving the facades from some of the historic buildings, the work would have to be done without delaying any demolition plans.
The buildings along Market Street are listed as historic structures with the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission (PHMC).
Extra steps must be taken with PHMC before any of the buildings can be demolished.
French, who was contacted after the meeting, said some buildings are slated for demolition in the targeted code enforcement area to eliminate blight in downtown Brownsville.
“There were a number of buildings that were targeted in the redevelopment plan for immediate demolition,” French said. “It still is a legal process. There were 30 properties targeted for acquisition.”
French said the redevelopment authority has acquired eight of 22 properties that were under the control of Ernest Liggett or one of his companies and four of the properties owned by other people. The authority is at the point of offering fair market value to Liggett for the additional properties, and once the money is paid to a fund overseen by the courts, the authority can take physical possession of the properties.
“At that point in time, we can go into the properties and take care of as much blight as we can,” French said.
French said the PHMC process has been to start for the demolition of the former hardware store on Market Street. French said the documentation and approval process should take about two months to complete.
“They have to go through the bidding process and everything yet. Once they go through everything, there might not be enough money to demolish one building,” Jack Lawver said.
French said the redevelopment authority has about $1.2 million available from a state grant for the blight eradication plan for downtown Brownsville, but that money is for acquisition as well as demolition or rehabilitation and the courts have yet to decide a case filed by Liggett, stating the taking of his downtown properties is a de facto taking of all of his Brownsville area properties, meaning he would be owed fair market value for more than 100 additional properties.
“We have to be somewhat conservative with the funds we have remaining because of the additional issues hanging over our heads, including the question of the de facto taking,” French said.