SHREVEPORT, La. -- The owner of the old Shreve Square building that burned one week ago has been given 30 days by Mayor Adrian Perkins' administration to demolish what's left. Otherwise, the city will do it and send him the bill.
But KTBS has also learned that the city gave an order to demolish the ramshackle structure within the last year, according to City Councilwoman LeVette Fuller. She says there were conflicts with preservationists who wanted to save the facade of what was one of the city's oldest buildings.
She says the owner pleaded with the city, saying the pandemic put a big roadblock in the way of his plans to develop it.
"Pleas for patience were heard. We backed off," Fuller says. "We were hoping that we would be able to see some economic vibrance come back to that building. But when we're not able to take swift action and have accountability, this is one of the actions that we can see, and it's unfortunate for the entire community."
It's believed an arsonist set the blaze in the unsecured, abandoned building that had already partially collapsed.
It's owned by Judge Marcus Hunter of Monroe, who's on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal. He bought the neglected building in a tax sale from the city three years ago. Hunter has said he still wants to develop the site.
"He has expressed that he will reach out to the historical society first, to see what he can and can not do, because he still intends on doing something with that property," property standards Director Terrence Green told the City Council on Tuesday.
Meantime, Fuller has an idea for another charred eyesore in her district. The building at Fairfield Oaks Condominiums is still standing, almost a year and a half after the inferno wiped out 30 units there in April 2021.
Fencing also surrounds the charred building at the front of Fairfield Oaks Condominiums.
Green says its demolition is tied up in lawsuits from individual homeowners and the homeowners association.
Fuller wants negotiation with those parties to allow the city to go ahead and pay for the demolition, then get paid back.
"If we are able to go ahead and handle it up front, and allow the homeowners association to come to an agreement with us to pay it back in installments, that's my proposal," Fuller says. "That's what I think would be the best way to proceed. And I believe that property standards would like to be able to work toward that conclusion as well."
Green says his office, along with the city attorney and Fuller hope to meet with homeowners to speed up the demolition process.
The cause of that fire has never been disclosed.
