HAARIG GROUP DECIDES TO URGE THAT OLD ST. FRANCIS BE RAZED

A southside community group will ask the City Council to demolish old St. Francis Hospital.

Members of the Haarig Area Development Corp. voted unanimously Monday to go ahead and make the move. Councilman Tom Neumeyer, a member of the organization, said he will bring the issue up at Monday's council meeting.

The decision comes after various proposals to make use of the long-vacant and frequently vandalized building have fallen by the wayside. "We did not want to go to the city as long as there was a reasonable chance of using it," HADC president Ted Coalter said.

The organization had hoped that a community group or investors would buy and renovate the building at the corner of Good Hope and Pacific. The two best hopes were as housing for the Family Resource Center, an organization which wants to provide community services under one roof, and as a possible site for the proposed new federal building.

But the state has refused even to study the cost of rehabilitating the building. And the General Services Administration chose Happy Hollow as its prime site for constructing the federal building.

Coalter said a group of St. Louis investors toured the building last week and determined that the cost of renovating it would be prohibitive.

The investors were interested in turning the old hospital into a senior housing project, he said. But they said the cost of renovations would be $2 million more than the $5 million they were prepared to invest.

"They said they didn't see any way it could be made profitable," he said. "That pretty well put to rest any ideas of renovating it."

The building, built in 1913, was used as a hospital until St. Francis Medical Center opened in 1976. It subsequently was sold to Southeast Missouri State University, which housed students in the building until 1985.

Texan Peter Kern bought the property in 1988, but his plans for a senior housing center ran afoul of the city's building code.. After his death, the property went to his estate, which has since been tied up in probate court.

Neumeyer said he already has talked to City Manager Michael Miller about including funding for demolition in the city's next budget. Neumeyer says it's time for the city also to pursue demolition of the Marquette Hotel, another vacant building nobody seems to have a use for.

Neumeyer said the cost of razing the buildings is approximately $500,000 apiece.

"We'd love to be able to sell those two buildings to a movie company to blow up for a thriller," said Neumeyer.

But, he added, because they contain asbestos, even that fanciful scenario isn't possible.

Neumeyer said a bond issue is a more realistic option for raising the money.