South End Social Club eyed as part of further cleanup efforts.
LEWISTON – Two more failing Lisbon Street structures could go under the wrecking ball, pending a City Council decision Tuesday.
The first, at 359 Lisbon St., has been vacant for the past five years. The other is at 327 Lisbon St., the home of the South End Social Club.
Both buildings are a health threat, according City Administrator Jim Bennett.
“If the council agrees, we’ll give the owners of both buildings the choice to correct the problem or remove the danger,” Bennett said.
Bennett said if the buildings are not fixed or torn down by the owners, the city will do it and bill them. If the owners don’t pay within 18 months, the city can claim the property by eminent domain.
“It’s part of our new aggressiveness to clean up some of the safety issues downtown,” Bennett said.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Lewiston City Hall.
Dolores Gadboury, treasurer of the South End Social Club, said she knows the building isn’t a fit home for the club. The club owns the building and has been looking for a new home since the spring.
“The business, that’s on the first floor, so that’s where we put our money,” Gadboury said. “We tore up the bathrooms to the beam to clean them up. And we’ve been trying to find a new place all along.”
According to the city, the upper floors of the building suffer from extensive water damage, with walls falling in on most of the rooms and ceilings collapsing.
Bennett said plans call for giving the social club until Nov. 1 to repair the damage or tear it down themselves.
The second building, at 359 Lisbon St., would only get 90 days to correct its problems. Property Manager Joe Dunne of Sullivan Property Management said the building has been vacant for five years at least.
“Some people rented the first floor to store some oak doors, but they just kind of abandoned them,” he said.
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, but all three floors of that building are falling in, according to the city.
“The council will have to decide if you leave a building that’s considered dangerous because it’s historic,” Bennett said. “From a structural perspective, it’s not just the color of paint. There are problems there.”
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