Group seeks extension for renovation

The City Council will have to decide whether to give a six-year extension to Central Missouri Community Action that will allow it to complete the planned renovation of the old Heibel-March drugstore.

It has been six years since the city sold the old brick building, also known as “The Corner,” at Range Line Street and Wilkes Boulevard, to CMCA to prevent its demolition and convert it into the Field Community Resource Center.

A number of council members, however, have expressed concern about how slowly the renovation is going.

“They haven’t done anything,” said Fourth Ward Councilman Jim Loveless, who voted against a one-year extension in 2005 that was intended to allow the CMCA to finish the project. “In the last year, I see very little progress. Nothing has been done that should make me less skeptical.”

The building remains vacant and almost as dilapidated as it was when the city sold it. Last year, the council narrowly approved the request for the one-year extension, but the new deadline passed about two weeks ago.

Dan Cullimore, who became project manager for the renovation 18 months ago, said the board overseeing the project has been distracted by internal restructuring. CMCA has seen significant turnover among its leaders and lost track of the project as different individuals and organizations involved stopped attending the meetings. Also, Caring Communities, which was once heavily involved the project, went out of business.

Cullimore said that’s why much remains to be done.

“Basically, we have four walls and a roof,” he said. The building’s entire electric system must be repaired and its walls, floor and ceiling plastered, he said. He also emphasized a plan to create a “green roof” featuring plants on top of the building.

CMCA, along with the North Central Columbia Neighborhood Association, is asking for another six years so the project can remain eligible for Neighborhood Assistance Program tax credits.

The NAP requires that the group show it will retain control of the property for at least five years after the work is done. Because the building stands on the city-owned Field Park, the extension must be approved by the city. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the extension on Oct. 16.

Cullimore is confident, though, that the council will recognize his efforts to get the work started.

“We have made more progress in the last 12 months than has been made in the past five years,” he said.

That work has included getting drawings from architects Columbia Associates and CM Engineering, having the plaster ceiling removed and getting the engineer to approve of a building design that is environmentally efficient.

The groups argued that the building, which has been vacant since the mid-1990s, should be preserved because it is among the oldest buildings in central Columbia and an example of architecture from around 1910. They also argued it would give the neighborhood a much-needed gathering place.

Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser, however, is not enthusiastic.

“I have seen some progress in record keeping, but I do have some concerns about them meeting their objectives,” she said. She and Loveless, as well as Third Ward Councilman Bob Hutton, voted against the extension last year.

City Manager Bill Watkins said he’s not aware of any fixed plan for what to do if the extension is refused.

“We might see if there is another group willing to take the project or remove the building and incorporate it in the surrounding park,” he said.