Linda Harris DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY — Jefferson County Treasurer Ray Agresta and Jefferson County Land Bank Executive Director Tabatha Glover discuss plans for the Renforth Building on North Fourth Street.

STEUBENVILLE – For the right buyer, the former Renforth building on North Fourth Street could be a bargain.

And the right buyer, Jefferson County Treasurer Ray Agresta said, will be a developer with concrete plans to finish the interior of the historic early 20th-century property, which has been cleared of decades of debris, its walls and floors repaired. and its roof rebuilt.

The price of the case ($43,000) reflects its market valuation for fiscal 2024: it is low enough to generate more than passing interest among investors who go crazy and buy low in the hope that in the future They will be able to sell big and often lack the resources (or are unwilling to commit) to do even the minimum necessary to prevent a property from falling into disrepair, let alone add the finishing touches.

That’s not what the project’s sponsors (the Jefferson County Land Bank and the city of Steubenville) have in mind for the property, hence the sales restrictions they’re considering.

“What we’re looking for is for a developer to come back and say, ‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do.’ These are the plans we have.” said Agresta, president of the land bank. “We want them to plan what they are going to do. “We’re not so concerned about what the actual end use is going to be, we just want to know that they’re going to do something, that something is going to happen with it.”

Agresta said they are looking for a good faith effort to meet pre-established performance benchmarks. Typically, “We give them a year to complete these projects, and if they don’t, we could come back and take it.” said.

But he hopes that won’t be a problem, given everything that has already been invested to save the property.

“The city of Steubenville approached us to see if there was anything the land bank could do to help them preserve this building because it’s in a historic district.” Agresta said. “We received a budget to rebuild this building, and to tear it down and rebuild it was $2 million, which is hard to believe. But because of the limitations (neighbors on both sides were very concerned about water intrusion up and down, from the roof and from the basement, because the water just came in here with nowhere to go), then, because it was “In a historic district, the only thing we could do was remodel it from the inside out.”

Agresta said the price was high, more than $500,000, but that the city and the land bank worked together to keep the property on the tax rolls, potentially creating jobs and generating tax revenue in the future.

The land bank was able to obtain grants to cover much of the cost; The city shouldered the rebuilding costs and the balance was covered with grant money guaranteed by the land bank.

RSV Inc., owned by businessman Steve Vukelic, won the contract, which turned out to be fortuitous: Although he had never tackled a preservation project like this before, Vukelic has dedicated much of his working life to dismantling dilapidated and unsafe structures in even worse conditions. than the land bank project.

Agresta believes Vukelic saw it as a challenge, an opportunity to try to figure out how to save a building instead of demolishing it.

It was also a leap of faith for the land bank, because “It was something we had never tried to do before,”Agresta said, and one misstep could have had disastrous consequences, given the way Fourth Street storefronts are structurally codependent.

Agresta said the building “It needed a lot of demolition inside and to make it structurally viable.”

“Everyone talks about ‘good bones’ in a building, but this one had a lot of broken bones,” said. “RSV was the only contractor that was interested in this. I think at first Steve was thinking, ‘What am I getting into?’ because he’s more of a demolition guy and had to be demolished literally by hand. They were just removing (the debris) piece by piece. At first it was very, very slow. I mean, there was a very unstable building, a very unstable second and third floor, and there were workers here. And you know that every action has an equal and opposite reaction: they eliminate one thing and hope it doesn’t affect another.” said.

“But we have dealt with Steve on dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of properties. You know, we put these projects out to bid and he’s always in the mix, if not he gets most of them. I don’t think we had any hesitation in going with him. And Steve and his team did a fantastic job dismantling this place, literally piece by piece. I’m sure the two owners next door are thrilled that they now have no water intrusion (they don’t have to worry about common walls becoming a problem) and since this building was in foreclosure, no one would have done anything with it. .”

Agresta said RSV crews gave the building a new roofline, replaced crumbling floor beams, reinforced sagging walls and even revealed patches of the original brick. Agresta said the land bank initially planned to redo the façade, but ultimately decided “Leave that to whoever buys it, because they’re going to have to meet the historic district criteria.”

Since this is a shell, the buyer will also have to finish the interior to their liking. That includes installing and connecting water and sewer lines to city connections and wiring the building for electricity.

It sounds like a lot, but given the $43,000 asking price and everything that’s been done to make the building structurally sound, there’s room for the right buyer to do what needs to be done without breaking the bank.

Agresta credits now-retired Steubenville Urban Projects Director Chris Petrossi for selling the project’s board and land bank CEO Tabatha Glover for putting together all the moving parts.

Member of the board of directors of the land bank, Petrossi said “He was the one who was throwing it.”

“I think he really saw it as the only way to do it because no one was going to come here and spend that kind of money.” Agresta said. “There is no private investor that was going to provide capital for this, it just wouldn’t happen. “My concern, my biggest fear, was the adjacent buildings.”

And Glover has developed the relationship needed at the state level to carry out projects of this magnitude.

“They trust that the information she gives them will be accurate and it’s just a back and forth flow.” said. “And you know, a successful project leads to potential grant money being available to the county because you’ve demonstrated the ability to do what you say you’re going to do.”

Now that the more than a year-long project is finished, “We are very satisfied with the results and the outcome.” Agresta added. “Now I don’t know what the future holds for him; I mean, obviously the land bank doesn’t want to keep it; It is not our purpose to acquire properties and hold them. “We want to reuse it, recover it and put it on the productive tax lists.”

He considers it a lot.

“I mean, this block of Fourth Street and a couple (of others) are really booming, and I think someone who has some vision and experience” will jump on it, Agresta said. “We’re not (necessarily) looking for someone to buy it, renovate it and then occupy it; they could (then finish it) turn around and sell it themselves.”

“We have done our part. We have taken the ball as far down the field as possible. “We need someone else to cross the goal line and we don’t know who it will be.”