Civic Center agrees to Schnorf Building lease

LIMA - Civic Center board members approved a lease deal Wednesday, advancing plans to restore a downtown landmark one step further.

Board members voted 4 to 3 to lease the third floor of the former Schnorf Hardware store from the Lima Allen County Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The group will pay $42,500 a year for the next 10 years for what will eventually be a formal banquet facility, which they hope to rent out as they do other Civic Center rooms.

The decision came after two closed-door sessions and another 90 minutes of discussion over plans to fund and run the space. The move is just part of a plan by the Chamber of Commerce and other local economic groups hoping to make the building's lower two floors their home.

The plan is for the economic development groups to use the first two floors for office space and partner with others to renovate a third floor as a banquet facility to be managed by Veterans Memorial Civic Center, directly to the property's north. The building has been vacant since the county purchased it in 1998 for $160,000. The building is three floors high with about 5,700 square feet a floor.

The chamber, Allen Economic Development Group, Downtown Lima Inc., Allen Lima Leadership and Lima-Allen County Visitors and Convention Bureau have worked in recent weeks to put together a deal on the building and could do so under several different scenarios.

A lease for the building the groups are in now expires at the end of the year. The group has been working with Allen County commissioners, who own the building, to get the building renovated. Local businessman John Rudolph has already invested $40,000 on plans and engineering and has been working with the groups. John Rudolph's son, Jim Rudolph, said the next step is an environmental study of the building and then waiting for all parties to decide the best way to go about the renovations.

Some board members, as well as Commissioner Greg Sneary, opposed the decision. Sneary, reading from a statement he drafted earlier, said he feared the additional expense could be more than the Civic Center could handle.

"Hypothetically, if this were to be something that was taken to a lending institution, do you think they would consider it to be a bankable piece? If not, that demonstrates the level of risk and need I remind you, this is not our money, it is taxpayers' dollars, which is not to be placed at risk," Sneary said.

"The alternative to this project is to completely lose this building," said Commissioner Dan Reiff, who has been working with local businessman John Rudolph to save the building. "This is the kind of deal that won't come along at this price again. The county, the city, they can't put together a package like these guys have."

The package for the Civic Center includes a $25,000 donation from Rudolph to help lower the cost of the first year's rent. Board members and Civic Center Director Brian Keegan said they would have liked to have more time to study the marketability of the new space, but deadlines make that impossible.

Chamber Director Jed Metzger and others have been hurriedly working to put together a deal, in part because the lease on their current office expires at the end of the year. If the Civic Center board had rejected the deal, they would have had to find another tenant for the building's third floor or give up on the building altogether.

The third floor may be covered, but Metzger and the others working on the project still have plenty to do before the deal is done. They still need to review an environmental audit to make sure surprises won't increase the $2.4 million price tag. They also need to complete all financial papers and lease agreements with the other tenants, and they have another $100,000 in down payment to come up with.

"We're about 90 percent of the way there, but when you get to that 10-yard line, getting over the goal line can still be a challenge," said Jim Rudolph. "It has been a fairly complicated, challenging project, but it will be exciting to see it come to fruition."