The one-time rooming house at 1436 Grace Ave. has 12 bedrooms. The city wants it converted into a single family home.

Having failed to find a suitable buyer for the former rooming house it owns on Grace Avenue, the city is now giving serious consideration to demolishing the property.

The city’s top housing official on Monday briefed members of the City Council’s housing committee about ongoing efforts to unload two boarding houses the city purchased last year for $270,000 from an absentee landlord in order to shut them down.

Dru Siley told committee members the city is close to selling the Mars Avenue property for $25,000 to a man associated with Final Destination Restoration. The man and his finance, who are not current Lakewood residents, will convert the property to a single family home and make it their primary residence.

Siley estimated the couple will invest approximately $140,000 to make necessary modifications and repairs. The sales contract, which is set to close around June 4, will have a “claw back” clause penalizing the owners if certain deadlines are unmet. They have 30 days to pull the necessary repair permits and 180 days to fix all exterior building code violations. They must have all other repairs made within 12 months.

While the new owners will have a lot of work to do, Siley noted that many of the house’s original interior features — like built-in wood cabinets — were left intact. In addition, many of the floor-plan modifications made by the prior owner were done using drywall and can be removed without too much difficulty.

The 1446 Mars Ave. property has five bedrooms.

He said Mars Ave. properties in the vicinity of the Lakewood Public Library on Detroit Avenue “tend to hold their value,” and observed the average sales price is around $170,000.

A representative from the city checked out a couple of Shaker Heights houses that were rehabbed by Final Destination Restoration and found them to be well done, according to Siley.

Grace Ave. property ‘more challenging’

The situation on Grace Avenue will not likely have as happy an ending.

Siley told the committee that the “economics of the property are more challenging” compared to the Mars Ave. house. He explained that it was “pretty significantly altered” over the years and all of the original features were stripped out. In addition, it must have all of its mechanicals replaced and suffered severe water damage.

Siley felt the high cost of rehabbing the property makes it very unattractive to potential investors. He doubted the city would even be able to give it away. The city lowered their asking price to $43,000, and marketed it through the Cleveland Restoration Society, but hasn’t attracted any serious interest.

One potential suitor approached the city last year with a proposal to turn it into a half-way house or keep it as a rooming house, and was rejected.

Siley said some Grace Ave. residents have been informed of the possible demolition of the house and offered no opposition. He said they were happy to be done with it — it had become a neighborhood nuisance as a rooming house. The homeowner to the south of the property expressed interest to Siley in buying the vacant lot.

Siley described one scenario in which the house could be demolished within 60 days to coincide with the grand opening of the new Discount Drug Mart on the corner of Detroit and Grace Avenues. Plans have not yet been finalized.

The stone facade of the former church building at 15422 Detroit Avenue is crumbling.

In other news…historic property in need of repair

On your next walk around town, be sure to check out the condition of the First Church of Christ, Scientist church building on Detroit Ave across from the library.

It’s not a pretty sight. A decent-sized section of the stone to the west of the front steps has failed.

It was designated as a historic property by the Planning Commission over the objection of its out-of-town owner.

As a historic property, the owner is mandated by law to fix the situation. It will be a good challenge for the city’s Division of Housing and Building.

It is guaranteed to be one of the best smelling storefronts in the East End.

Two Lakewood entrepreneurs have acquired the neat little building at 12405 Madison Avenue, across from the Fedor Manor, and plan to move their home-based handmade soap operation into the storefront.

Steven Meka and David Willett, owners of STEM Handmade Soap, purchased the property for $51,000 from the defunct mental health services provider Bridgeway, Inc., which closed last year. Bridgeway, Inc. had owned it since 1988, prior to that it housed a hair salon.

Meka and Willett said in an e-mail that they were attracted to the building because of its small size. “We wanted to keep it simple and self-sustaining as possible,” they said. “A small storefront with a great rental space in the rear will allow the business to thrive with little overhead.”

The Lake Avenue residents expect to open the retail space to the public during the weekends when they make soap. They also plan on making some improvements to the three-bedroom two-bathroom apartment in the rear of the property.

The duo look forward to becoming part of the East End community. It “has a lot of potential and opportunity yet untapped,” they said. “We feel it is just the beginning for this neighborhood as we join Knottily Wood, Taco Tonto and Baraco and several others to begin some forward momentum.”

In other news….Software reseller sues customer over unpaid half-million dollar debt

Onix Networking Corp., a leading Google Apps reseller, on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking payment from a California company on a half-million dollar debt.

In its complaint, Onix Networking accuses eTouch Systems Corp of receiving 45,000 1-year licenses to use Google Apps, but failing to pay a July 4, 2012 invoice in the amount of $499,500. eTouch Systems hasn’t yet filed a response to the lawsuit.

Onix Networking Group, based in the former Bonne Bell building on Detroit Avenue, last year signed a $35 million contract with the Department of the Interior to provide Google Apps.

Pedestrians strolling on this fantastic March Sunday afternoon.

It was an unusual sight for this time of year in the city’s largest park.

Bike racks were full, the basketball courts were busy, and well over 100 people were strolling around.

Temperatures stayed in the mid-60s for most of the afternoon, well above the 35 degree seasonal average.

Enjoy it while it lasts! Weather.com is predicting snow showers with a high of 33 degrees for Wednesday.

A short-sleeved jogger runs behind a bicycle rack at full capacity.

Basketballers enjoying the new half-courts in Lakewood Park

There was a pretty big crowd of people making use of the basketball courts. It’s only March, and it’s easy to see that the demand for hoops far exceeds the supply. It’s going to be interesting to see how the situation will be handled during summer.

The courts, by the way, were entirely built with private funds. The City Council, and particularly Councilperson Monique Smith (At-Large), had the ability to allocate some money, but balked — even though Mayor Michael Summers supported the idea. Here are the mayor’s written responses (.pdf) to Smith’s questions about the project from September 2012.

Among his contentions, the former CEO of Ferry Cap & Screw believes he was defamed when false rumors were spread regarding his role with Halstead Thermal Processing.

A former chief executive officer of Ferry Cap & Set Screw Co. has filed a lawsuit against the company accusing it of wrongfully discharging him after he complained about the “adverse and detrimental activities” of the CEO of a sister company.

Ex-CEO Joseph McAuliffe’s legal complaint alleges the problem began in January 2011 when parent company Doncasters Group Ltd indicated it was considering selling its fastener division, which is composed of Ferry Cap and Elyria-based Nelson Stud Welding, Inc.

McAuliffe took it upon himself to contact private equity groups and initiate a financial analysis of the potential sale of the company. The groups signed strict confidentiality agreements.

During the course of the process, McAuliffe claims to have uncovered information regarding the activities of Kenneth Caratelli, the CEO of Nelson Stud Welding, which was “likely to have a detrimental and adverse impact on Ferry Cap and Doncasters’ business.”

McAuliffe took his concerns to Bill Sickman, Doncasters’ human resources manager, in an effort to protect the companies’ interests. Rather than being rewarded, McAuliffe was told he was being terminated for disclosing Ferry Cap’s confidential information without authorization.

McAuliffe alleges he was actually terminated in retaliation for disclosing Caratelli’s malfeasance and believes Doncaster acted with “malice and reckless indifference” toward his fiduciary duty as CEO to protect the company.

In addition, he accuses Caratelli of convening a May 2, 2012 meeting of senior managers at Ferry Cap, where he told them McAuliffe was fired for improperly sharing private company information.

McAuliffe also accuses real estate broker Kevin M. Kelly of defamation. He claims Kelly spread a false rumor that McAuliffe was “being investigated for having an inappropriate ownership relationship with Halstead Thermal Processing,” a vendor located in the Lake Erie Screw building.

As a result of these disclosures, McAuliffe says he “has fallen into disfavor in the fastener industry,” and has lost job opportunities with Mayfran International and Precision Castparts Corp. McAuliffe admits to having had a $300,000-a-year salary as CEO of Ferry Cap.

McAuliffe is seeking damages for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy, defamation, and intentional interference with a business relationship.

Doncasters, Caratelli, and Kelly have denied any wrongdoing. The case is scheduled to go to trial later this year.

In other legal news…Judge James S. Gwin last week extended until 11:00 p.m. on March 15 a temporary restraining order forcing Ferry Cap’s union workers to work overtime. Judge Gwin indicated the company could not require any employee to work more than ten hours per day on weekdays and no more than eight hours per day on either Saturday or Sunday, but not both days. Ferry Cap believes some of its workers have violated their collective bargaining contract and is suing them.

The boarded-up house may be demolished. The bowing walls are not plainly visible from the street, but the sharply bowed roof beam is a clear indication of major structural problems.

The Board of Building Standards on Thursday unanimously voted to uphold the Division of Housing and Building’s public nuisance designation of the two-family house at 1214 Gladys Avenue.

The city was tipped off about the house’s unsafe condition on January 14 by Craig Lovejoy who reluctantly e-mailed photos of the structure to the division. “I really don’t like to have to be the one to bring this to your attention but it is only a matter of time before we have a complete collapse of the roof structure,” he wrote.

Assistant Building Director Jeff Fillar told the Board that the building inspector who investigated Lovejoy’s complaint was “a little befuddled” by the scene because he’d never seen anything quite like it before.

As images of the house’s bowed exterior walls, failed roof, and contorted presence were projected onto a screen, Fillar said one of his primary concerns was the potential collapse of the structure’s brick chimney onto the residence next-door.

Fillar said the condition of the house had noticeably worsened since the nuisance designation was issued on January 29. Both natural gas and electricity service to the home had been shut off as a precaution.

Fire Marshall Timothy Dunphy toured the exterior of property and told the Board it looked like the sill plate had slipped off of the concrete foundation. He peered through an open back door and saw collapsed kitchen floor joists.

Dunphy also noticed a large hole in the rear of roof, detected a strong odor of mold and suspected the existence of major water damage.

Homeowner James Bogner, who was appealing the nuisance designation, explained to the Board that he’d been battling illness for the last two years. He was diagnosed with diabetes and had his thyroid removed last March at the Cleveland Clinic. He had been the sole occupant of the house until he was forcibly removed.

Bogner didn’t offer any defense to the city’s claims. He said a structural engineer who examined the house found that the primary load-bearing basement support beam shifted off of its support posts.

Bogner didn’t know what it would cost to repair the damage, and seemed to think it was DIY project. He said he’d been accumulating support beams and purchased 12 housejacks. “I was gonna fix it myself,” he said.

Chairman Michael Molinski summed up the Board’s position: “This is a nuisance by definition. This house is a danger.”