MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (WXYZ) — The historic Macomb Daily building in Mount Clemens is crumbling, prompting city leaders to pursue legal action to condemn the nearly 100-year-old structure.
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There are visibly large cracks in the building, and bricks have fallen to the ground. Mount Clemens Mayor Laura Kropp said the condition of the building is unacceptable, and it needs to be demolished or renovated.
Bricks began falling a few days ago, forcing the city to set up a perimeter of barricades and yellow tape to keep people away.
"There's a lot of cracking on the facade, the limestone appears to be separating from the actual structure of the building and falling off," Kropp said.
Built in 1929, the building was once the tallest in the city but has sat vacant for four decades since 1994.
Kim Kushner, who works next to the old headquarters, said the building is becoming a safety hazard.
"If someone had their car parked there, they had to evacuate ... there was concern of debris falling," Kushner said.
"It's a historic building, but it hasn't been maintained as a historic building, so it would probably benefit from coming down," she said.
WXYZ reached out to Isam Yaldo, president of Yaldo Construction, which owns the building, but did not hear back.
Kropp said the city's attorneys are proceeding with legal action.
"In 2004, the city tried to condemn this building. And it was ruled that it was not condemnable at that point, that condemnation couldn't happen. And so they also said in that ruling that the city could not bring forth another condemnation proceedings until another structural event, like a major structural event occurred, fire, flooding, those types of things ... but we believe now with this new issue of the building literally crumbling... that is a structural change. And so our, our attorneys are proceeding this, and the city is more than willing and more than ready to take the next steps towards condemnation," Kropp said.
The city is currently in the midst of multi-million dollar downtown revitalization efforts.
"It's not reflective of what we are doing, and we're investing in the city, but yet we have this building behind me that is just this reminder of, you know, the days that are behind us," Kropp said.
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