Court orders demolition of downtown Belfast building

A Waldo County court has ordered that a condemned building in downtown Belfast be demolished, after the city has spent years pushing for that to happen because of the danger it poses.

The building, the former Bradbury Manor Nursing Home at 74 High St., must be torn down within the next 30 days and the owner must also pay fines and legal fees to the city in connection with its local code violations, according to the June 26 order from Waldo County Superior Court Justice Patrick Larson.

Owners of 74 High Street LLC, the defendant in the legal proceedings, have previously said that the building isn’t dangerous and doesn’t need to be removed.

Under the court order, 74 High Street LLC must pay civil penalties in the amount of $126,900, or $100 for each of the 1,269 days the building has violated local codes. It must also pay legal fees to the city and its attorneys totaling more than $10,000.

The building has not served as a nursing home for more than 24 years, and its condition has deteriorated significantly since then. The city first condemned it in 2020, and then sought a court order for the demolition.

“I’ve been in a lot of the buildings in Belfast, and they’re not all in tip-top shape,” Bub Fournier, the director of code and planning for the city, said at the time. “But when I set foot in that building, it was just like, ‘Whoa, this is the worst thing we have in the downtown area.’”