PETOSKEY — A mostly vacant strip of storefronts in the heart of downtown Petoskey now has red signage across its windows after Emmet County placed a stop work order on the building.
According to Emmet County Building Department Director Martin Van Berlo, the county was notified by the Petoskey Department of Public Safety in early July with concerns for the safety of the building at 445 E. Mitchell St.
Owned by the Petoskey Land and Cattle Company, spaces within the building have been leased to local businesses, including The Computer Source, where shoppers are still able to enter. Poetess and Stranger was also formerly housed in the space before moving to Lake Street earlier this summer.
As the owner of the building, Petoskey Land and Cattle Company “has a responsibility to maintain the building in a safe structural manner,” Van Berlo said. However, tenants have the responsibility to get proper permits themselves for any work they do within a space.
Van Berlo said an inspector went to the site, and discovered the building had a number of code issues, including the lack of an operable fire suppression system, a lack of up to date fire extinguishers, guard rail issues by the ramp in the basement and duct work that had been done without permits and approvals. There are also issues with wall supports, floor framing, as well as “bio growth,” which looked like mold, though Van Berlo said they “are not mold experts.”
When it came to the building's structure, the county building inspector found that water was leaking through the roof system, with decay and rot inside, leading to damage to the floor structure.
“All of those things need to be addressed at some point with either repairs or perhaps possible demolition of the whole building,” Van Berlo said. “We have not condemned the building. We have been working with the building manager trying to get some of these things addressed and trying to get them to apply for a building permit.”
Despite not having proper permits, construction began on the building, which led to a stop work order being posted on the windows by Emmet County officials.
“We’ve given them two weeks to come in and get their building permits,” Van Berlo told the News-Review prior to the stop work order being posted. “They have failed to do so.”
Van Berlo added that the county does not condemn buildings. However, the building can be determined to be unsafe for occupancy or as an unsafe structure, which would lead to the need for the spaces to be vacated. The building is not yet at that point.
The parts of the building with the most issues are able to be locked and closed to the public, Van Berlo said.
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Van Berlo told the News-Review on Wednesday that the building owner, through their maintenance team, has applied for renovation permits. The permits have not yet been approved, and the stop work order remains in effect.
There will be engineering evaluations of the building before receiving approval for that permit, and Van Berlo does not have an estimate for how long it could take.
The Petoskey Land and Cattle Company did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
— Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN .
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: County issues stop-work order, says permits needed to repair downtown Petoskey building
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