The Perry City Council voted 4-1 to guarantee a loan agreement for the Nudgers who are working to historically renovate and reopen the building at 1314-1316 Second Street.

The guarantee is for up to $750,000, which the Nudgers need to complete construction before they can receive tax credit funds.

City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says the amount of money it takes to do such a project can be difficult to comprehend.

“They’ve already invested $400,000 into that building and looking to do another probably lose to $900,000 or $1 million.  Looking at a building that’s gonna over a four year period, or five year period, they’re going to seen $1.4 million into and the appraised value might come in at less than half a million.  So the cost of fixing up one of these old buildings and putting it back historically correct, is not cheep and it’s tough to get your hands around” says Niebuhr.

But he says sometimes renovation is the most logical thing to do because other options can be tricky as well.

“I think for one thing, sharing the common wall (with the Grand Theater) and not having a building come down against that wall.  Once again, a north exposure and those interior walls aren’t really built to be exterior walls.  So in a perfect world, if that building comes down it makes that property owner then almost have to do something with that that wall and that exposure to do some fixes, so there’s some cost to him that wouldn’t be realized otherwise.  And they’re probably built on zero lot line.  So to do something to that wall, you have to go out on to somebody else’s lot with building materials so it’s not always a simple solution.”

Niebuhr says hopefully the City won’t have to end up putting any money into this, though if the Nudgers default, the funds will come from the City’s General Obligation bond.