By Paul Thompson

Northeast News

July 26, 2016

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The saga of 523 Campbell Street continues.

Back on July 6, the Columbus Park historic structure partially collapsed onto a pair of parked cars, crushing one vehicle, damaging another, and causing the city to declare an emergency demolition due to the “immediate threat of further collapse and imminent danger to the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”

Building owner Thuan Tran had indicated in the hours after the partial collapse that he would work to save the structure, but by the afternoon of July 7, an email sent from the KCMO City Communications office stated that Tran had made arrangements with a private company to demolish the building.

Indeed, portions of the building’s third floor exterior were torn down during the subsequent days, evidenced by a pile of bricks lining the base of the fenced-off structure. Work halted shortly thereafter, though, as Tran sought a temporary restraining order to appeal the city’s decision for an emergency demolition.

The motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) was filed on Tuesday, July 12. The TRO was granted on Wednesday, July 13, after Tran and his attorney presented an engineer’s second opinion on the property’s structural integrity. The engineer testified that the building was no longer an immediate threat to the public.

“The first thing we had to convince the judge of was that this was not an imminent danger,” said Bob Wise, Tran’s lawyer. “What we used the engineer’s report for was to show that nothing was going to happen over the next few days.”

Tran was given until Thursday, July 21 to prove that he was serious about rehabbing the structure. During that follow-up hearing, Tran showed the judge he had the financing in place to complete the renovation, provided a timetable for construction, and presented signed contracts with an architect and a contractor. Having fulfilled the requests of the court, Tran was allowed to continue rehabilitation work ahead of a scheduled September 29 review hearing.

“Mr. Tran held up his end and did everything the judge told him to do,” said Wise.

On Monday, July 25, City Communications Director Chris Hernandez told the Northeast News that the city is willing to work with Tran as long as the building doesn’t pose a danger to the community.

“This is actually a good situation where we have an owner who is there,” said Hernandez. “What’s bad for the community is if you have this building on the verge of collapse sitting there for weeks and weeks.”

Tran said on Monday that work on replacing the roof and repairing the building’s brick exterior is already underway. He added that his renovation efforts have been received favorably by the city.

“They support us,” said Tran. “They just want us to renovate the buildings and make it look good to the neighborhood.”

Tran remains confident that the building poses no further threat.

“In the second opinion, they said the building was safe,” said Tran. “The foundation is still in good shape. It’s only the brick that is causing the problem.”

City records show that the property has been the subject of three property nuisance cases since 2008. The first occurred in June of 2008, and was related to water being diverted onto a neighboring property. That case was closed in July of 2009. The second case opened in June of 2013 and initially involved trash and weeds, but an inspection uncovered 15 further violations – including the building not being structurally sound, rotting boards, peeling paint, the ceiling in disrepair, and floors in disrepair. After multiple summons and callbacks, the violations were ultimately abated and the case was closed in November of 2015. The third case, first related to trash and broken windows but later expanded to include a collapsed retaining wall, was opened in February of 2016. That case was still pending at the time of the collapse, with a court date scheduled for August 4, 2016.

Members of the community revealed mixed feelings regarding the future of 523 Campbell. Columbus Park Community Council President Matt Lowe said that while he was surprised to see the structure collapse, the property had been a concern for some time.

“What happened with that building certainly came as a shock to myself and several of our neighbors,” said Lowe. “The Columbus Park Community Council has been working with the city for years to get improvements to that property.”

Columbus Park Community Council board member Dan Frueh agreed that 523 Campbell had been an issue prior to the partial collapse. Still, Frueh expressed hope that the historic structure could be salvaged.

“I am all for trying to save it,” said Frueh. “It’s a pretty significant building in a prominent location, and I would rather see it saved and renovated and used, rather than torn down and turned into a surface parking lot.”