LORAIN — The South Shore Community Development Corp. board has offered to give the financially troubled St. Joseph Community Center to the city of Lorain.

The offer came Monday in a letter from the board’s attorney, Dennis O’Toole, but Lorain Mayor Tony Krasienko said he hasn’t made a decision about whether to accept the offer.

“We know time is short, and we’re working on it,” Krasienko said.

The nonprofit South Shore announced in April that it wouldn’t have enough money to keep the doors of the sprawling 180,000-square-foot building open past the end of the year. The former hospital is valued at about $6.5 million, but South Shore doesn’t pay taxes on it because of its nonprofit status, according to the Lorain County Auditor’s Office Web site.

Tammy Ramirez, chairwoman of the South Shore board, said the city taking ownership of the building is the best option to keep the building from closing.

“This is our last chance, and I just hope upon hope that this happens,” she said.

O’Toole’s letter said that the city was best equipped to move forward with a proposal to keep the building open — a plan presented by Lorain Service Director Robert Gilchrist at a meeting Friday.

Krasienko said he couldn’t discuss the specifics of the city’s proposal, but it would include using a $649,000 federal grant to improve energy efficiency at the building. The building’s utilities cost about $700,000 per year, and even halving that would be enough to make the building financially viable, Krasienko said.

Lorain County Administrator Jim Cordes, who sits on the South Shore board, also declined to offer details on the city’s proposal, but he too believes the city is in the best position to enact its plans to save the building.

“The city proposed the plan, and the city is the best organization to carry out the plan,” he said.

Krasienko has been a strong proponent of keeping St. Joseph open even as tenants look for new office space.

Neighborhood House, which provides Meals on Wheels programs for elderly citizens, moved into the community center less than a year ago.

Mike Mayse, the association’s president, said the city’s insistence on saving St. Joseph has cost it Neighborhood House as a tenant. His organization’s board voted Wednesday night to move its kitchen to the Mildred Bond Building on East 30th Street and to begin a search for new office space.

Neighborhood House is also abandoning plans to renovate and move its operations to the old Slovenian Club on Pearl Avenue. That deal, Mayse said, was contingent on the city coming through with grant money for the project, but since the city hasn’t authorized the money to be spent on the club the project won’t happen.

“Unfortunately, the city’s not prepared to go forward and we just can’t wait any longer,” Mayse said.

City Councilwoman Anne Molnar, D-at-large, said she isn’t opposed to the city taking over St. Joseph and keeping the community center open, but she strongly backed the Neighborhood House project at the old Slovenian Club and was focused on making that project happen.

Mayse said he harbors doubts that St. Joseph can be saved.

“I’m very much a realist and I think the clock is ticking,” he said.

Krasienko said he’s not willing to give up on the community center, which houses a Veterans Affairs clinic, a Lorain County Community College satellite branch and offices for the Lorain police, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, and U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township.

“I don’t give up that easily on something that important,” Krasienko said.

Krasienko also said he didn’t believe that the South Shore board had done everything possible to keep the building open and is essentially handing off the problem to the city.

If the board had taken the steps the city is contemplating, he said, St. Joseph wouldn’t be facing the possibility of closure.
If the city — which is dealing with its own financial problems — takes over the building, Krasienko said it wouldn’t be as a subsidy. The building would need to be financially self-sustaining.

“There is a way to make that building viable and sustainable,” he said.

The city already has a financial interest in the building thanks to a loan it is a guarantor on.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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