LORAIN, Ohio — The city of Lorain is taking legal action against the previous and current owners of a large nuisance property in the center of town.
The former St. Joseph’s Hospital site has been sitting vacant and partially demolished for several years.
“I’m so disappointed in what’s going on with this,” said Lori Olson, who lives in Lorain and passes the property almost daily.
She told News 5 that four generations, including herself, were born at the hospital. She said she was sad to see it closed down and frustrated to see the current state of the property.
“It’s been a long history of using this hospital. And I’m sure many other residents in the city have a lot of memories here,” Olson said.
More recently, the former hospital campus has been reduced to a gutted parking garage, piles of debris and an overgrown lot.
“It’s a mess,” Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley said simply.
The Mayor explained after the hospital closed in the mid-1990s, a nonprofit took over ownership. It served a number of purposes, including offices for politicians and veterans services, before the building fell into disrepair and was sold to a Massachusetts-based company.
Bradley said the developer’s plans to turn the site into affordable housing were derailed by environmental concerns. The city then halted demolition when it discovered the company hadn’t pulled the proper permits. When it defaulted on its loan, ownership fell into the hands of a Florida group.
Throughout the change of ownership, Bradley told News 5 that both the previous and current owners have been uncooperative in cleaning up the property. He said the city offered a grant to the current owners to pay for 75% of the decontamination process, but the group did not accept the offer.
The previous developer is facing several building code violations in Lorain Municipal Court, and records show the company failed to appear for a court date in early September.
“We tried to do it nice. And it doesn’t seem like it’s working out, so now we have to pursue the legal actions,” Bradley said.
He explained that in addition to charges in municipal court, the county is pursuing foreclosure, and the Ohio EPA has referred the matter to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for civil litigation. Lorain County Public Health is also planning to prosecute environmental crimes.
“When this is something that’s just sitting there, and it keeps changing hands over and over, it’s the citizens of Lorain city that continue to suffer,” said Health Commissioner Mark Adams.
Adams said the previous and current owners, as well as the demolition company, should take responsibility for improperly demolishing and disposing of asbestos.
“A good portion of it's still sitting in those piles,” he said. “Anytime the wind whips up, if anybody goes around it, that's really just hazardous waste. And it's just sitting there. It's sitting in the middle of the city.”
Additionally, Bradley said it’s been a difficult process to have a fence installed around the demolition site. He said a contractor refused to finish the fence until the current owners fully paid for the service. Now that it has been paid, he expects the partial fencing will be finished in the coming weeks.
Both Adams and Bradley said legal proceedings could take months, but city and county leaders are motivated to get the property cleaned up as soon as possible.
The decontamination process could cost at least $4-$5 million, but the city could qualify for state and federal grants if it takes over ownership. Bradley said he’d like the site to become the future home of the Lorain’s courts and police headquarters.
