“When we took over the building, Fifth Third had kind of let leases go to a month-to-month basis, and I think we had maybe four or five tenants at the time,” Dingeldein said. “We have one small, single-practitioner attorney left in the building.”
He said attorney Victoria A. Daiker, who was unavailable to comment, has occupied the building many years, and is welcome to stay: “I’m trying to accommodate her, but not leave the building open to damage,” he said.
“We haven’t had any trouble in the 1½-2 years we’ve had it, but just in the last, as soon as it got cold this year, we started having squatters get in the building during the day and end up being in the building all night, and doing some damage,” he said. “It’s been an issue that just came up recently.”
The response was keeping the outer door locked during the day, Dingeldein said.
“Vicki didn’t like that idea, because obviously she had to come down to let clients get in,” he said. “We’re working right now on getting a camera with a buzzer so we could keep the door locked, but they would be able to buzz clients in from their office desk to the door, and they would be able to get in that way.”
The buzzer system should be in place within a week, he estimated. In the interim, the CORE Fund and police are repeatedly checking the locks day and night.
“We’re hoping for a March 1-ish transition, if this agreement comes to a close,” Dingeldein said.
Canton-based Historic Developers’ principal, Steve Coon, was in town this week discussing the agreement. When contacted, Coon said a deal was near, but it was too early to comment. Historic Developers owns the Mercantile Lofts in the 200 block of High Street and the former Journal-News building, now occupied by the Butler Tech School of the Arts.
About the Author