An East End eyesore that once attracted vermin and trespassers has finally been razed.
The Charleston Urban Renewal Authority has been working to demolish a brick annex it owns at 1212 Quarrier St. since it acquired the property more than a year ago.
The renewal authority took the title to the property last June from MATO Investments, Inc., a real estate firm headed by local attorney Bob Johns that capitalizes on tax lien sales.
It was brought to the authority's attention last year when residents of Arlington Court, which butted up against the faded brick annex, complained to the authority that Johns was neglecting the property.
Hearing complaints of trash strewn across the property and vagrants entering the building, the authority took action and acquired the property.
Authority Executive Director Jim Edwards said a request for proposals for the remaining historic home on the property will soon be published. He said the building could be developed for commercial use or a multi-unit residential structure.
Unlike most of renewal authority's projects, 1212 Quarrier is outside any of its designated urban renewal areas, but that didn't stop the board from spending nearly $110,000 on the property.
When MATO agreed to "donate" 1212 Quarrier to the urban renewal authority last year, it required that the board reimburse the firm for various expenses to the tune of $35,000.
That included paying MATO for more than $27,700 in real estate taxes, $1,920 in labor costs and nearly $4,000 in legal fees. The authority also had to pay back a lien for unpaid municipal fees (fire and garbage services) for $660 to the City Collector's office.
More recently, the board spent another $75,000 on the structure's asbestos removal and demolition.
"One of the reasons it cost that much is because they had to do a lot of hand work to physically separate the building being demolished from the historic home and [Arlington] Court, then they brought in machine to do the heavy work," Edwards said. "It took a lot of labor."
Edwards said the authority's legal counsel, Joyce Ofsa, "has given us her opinion more than once that if a property outside our boundaries is impacting the redevelopment of a district in which we operate, then we can work outside the designated district."
But some community members on Charleston's West Side, which has a far greater concentration of vacant structures, believe the urban renewal authority has neglected to devote equal attention to areas that fall within its urban renewal boundaries, particularly around Mary C. Snow West Side Elementary.
Housing is one of four overall objectives in the 2008 West Side Community Redevelopment Plan, which serves as a template for urban renewal projects in that area.
Edwards said housing is not one of the authority's primary missions.
"We're primarily involved with dealing with commercial blight and redevelopment," he said. "The provision of new and improved housing is done by others...which I think has been misunderstood for some time."
The most recent investment the renewal authority has made with regard to housing on the West Side was a $200,000 contribution in 2014 to Project West Invest, which is an initiative that awards Charleston police officers a $50,000 loan to buy and renovate a house within West Side renewal areas with a 10-year commitment.
Earlier this year, the authority also purchased a house on the West Side for $25,000 in a foreclosure sale. A third police officer will move into that home through Project West Invest, Edwards said last week.
The Rev. Matthew Watts, a community leader on the West Side, said he and his colleagues would like to see the renewal authority devote more attention to vacant housing in that area that goes beyond supplying houses for police officers.
"We see the things CURA is doing to enhance the downtown and East End, and we would just like to see them have the same commitment and enthusiasm in addressing the challenges that residential areas on the West Side face - that are actually within the urban renewal district," Watts said Tuesday.
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.