A month ago, a large warehouse at 2nd & Wharton caught fire, ruining a couple of neighboring properties and causing dozens of neighbors to spend their afternoons watching the building burn while standing in the street.

Last month

A couple of weeks ago, we believe the City stepped in, demolishing about half of the structure.

From the north, the building looks mostly intact

But looking south...

Closer look

Closer still shows that half the building is gone and the building next door is badly damaged

Reports last month indicated that the building was being used for illegal auto repair, and while this use likely didn’t cause the fire it may have made it worse once it started. With lots of development in the area, notably four new homes right across the street, this building was once ripe for an adaptive reuse into loft apartments. Now, with part of the building demoed and another part clearly fire damaged, we fear that the building will either stay in this condition for the foreseeable future or some less exciting use will come to the remaining section of the building, like perhaps a legalized auto repair shop.

On the other hand, it seems possible that the fire may inspire the current owners to think about selling the property to someone who is actually interested in doing something proactive with it, which would certainly be a good thing for the surrounding area. Time will tell, but in the meantime we just hope that the current owners at least clean up the site, for the sake of the neighbors who have to walk by every day.