DAYTON — He owns the three tallest buildings in the Miami Valley and believes the city should do more to clear out or shore up vacant and decaying downtown buildings.
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This comes almost two months after strong winds knocked the siding off a building at the Stratacache Tower, causing more than $1 million in damage.
“There were 22 windows that were kind of blown out and or damaged by huge chunks of bricks coming through windows, destroying offices,” Founder and Chief Executive of Stratacache Chris Riegel said.
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Riegel put the price tag for repairs at almost a million dollars.
He still hasn’t reopened the upper floors of the parking garage or the surface parking lot.
“I mean, it’s frustrating, it’s a challenge,” Riegel said.
Riegel also owns the former Premier Tower, but decaying downtown buildings threaten his and everyone’s investments in the area.
“They can’t just sit there without maintenance and care. Otherwise, this is going to happen again. And the city needs to be a little more proactive in terms of tackling that problem,” Riegel said.
He estimates there are two dozen large vacant buildings downtown.
One is on 34 North Main Street, another is the Fidelity building across from the Convention Center.
“It’s a two-fold problem. You have the direct risk of the buildings falling down, plus also, homelessness, prostitution, drugs, all sorts of bad things that hang around these abandoned buildings,” Riegel said.
A city spokesperson told News Center 7 they do not employ a structural engineer, so they are not going into buildings and must work with landlords who are often absent.
The city also provided contributions to jump-start the plans to refurbish the City Center Building.
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