The city closed Friday on a deal to sell the vacant building at 36 S. Main St., formerly Rose Furniture, to a private investment group, said Mike Robinette, one of the buyers.
The damaged building is next to the homeless shelter Hope House Mission. Most of the 30 to 34 people who were staying at the shelter were at church services when the roof collapsed, said Gary Edwards, the building manager of Hope House.
Edwards reported the collapse at about 9:37 a.m. Sunday.
The collapse of the roof shows that the former Rose Furniture and adjacent Hope House buildings, which are more than 100 years old, aren’t safe, Edwards said.
“From here, it sounded like there was a serious fight going on,” Edwards said. “I’m surprised (the whole building) didn’t fall down.”
Residents have been moved to the wing of the Hope House building farthest from the damage, Edwards said.
The bottom line is “the city needs to recognize this is an old building and we help a lot of people,” he said. “We need a helping hand” for a new building.
“Every time there’s thunder, we’re going to be worried,” he said.
South Main Street is closed between Central and First avenues until further notice as a precaution, said Middletown Police Sgt. Steve Ream.
“Due to rain, we had a partial collapse,” Ream said. “Mother nature’s just expediting” the problem.
The Rose Furniture building’s leaky roof was a known issue.
The building at 36 S. Main St. was condemned in May as unsafe for occupancy. Hope House residents said the roof had a hole in it before it fell Sunday.
The city government acquired the building at no cost in 2011. Plans were made in May this year to demolish most of the building, except for the façade.
Denise Hamet, Middletown’s economic development director, told this newspaper in July something needed to be done soon, as a hole in the roof of Rose Furniture was causing damage to other adjacent properties.
However, the private group Historic Rose Furniture LLC stepped in, announcing intentions to salvage the 109-year-old downtown building. City Council in August approved a deal to give the former Rose Furniture building to the investment group to restore and reuse the structure. In the deal, the city also gave the developer $300,000 to stabilize the building and make repairs.
The deal closed Friday, and has yet to be recorded, said Mike Robinette, one of five investors of Historic Rose Furniture.
“We’ve got a structural engineer coming to look at it tomorrow,” Robinette said. “Our concern at this point is if there’s been any other structural damage done. We were going to be replacing the roof as part of the rehab on the property.”
Even if the roof collapsed before the sale of the building, Robinette said it likely would not have affected the deal.
“Our interest is to restore the retail space in the building and to restore the façade of the building and eventually lease it out for use,” Robinette said.
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