[JonathanGRR]

Yeah, me too--at least the inner building would be nice (41 S Division). The other one looks, especially in person, as way too far gone. It is nice that the city is trying to enforce upkeep though.

Here's the opposite side of the issue:

'Imminent' collapse feared at slumping Heartside buildings; owners may sue city
Garret Ellison | March 31, 2014

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — It might be a quite a while before people can walk the sidewalk again in front of two slumping Division Avenue buildings downtown.

Legal action against the city may be filed, say property owners cited in March by officials, who are concerned that years of freeze-thaw damage exacerbated by a harsh winter could cause an “imminent” façade collapse at 37 and 41 S. Division Ave.

Last week, officials blocked the sidewalk in front of both buildings, citing concerns that deteriorating structural integrity could injure pedestrians with falling bricks.

“It is my professional opinion that the buildings… are unsafe and dangerous,” City Engineer Mark De Clercq wrote in a March 4 letter to building owners Richard and William M. VanGessel and Jim Heeringa.

De Clercq, who walked through both structures with building official Mark Fleet on Dec. 12, believes the obvious façade distortion is being caused by a cavity under the load-bearing stairwell inside 35 S. Division, the worse of the two buildings.

The cavity is due to “a loss of soil from very old pipes that may be broken beneath the slab, carrying soil particles away when water is discharged over an extended period of time,” he wrote.

However, Heeringa suggested city infrastructure might instead be to blame.

“We believe and have maintained it has to do with the utilities in front of the building washing out the foundation,” said Heeringa, who believes the utility issues contributed to an areaway collapse several years ago under the sidewalk.

“We maintain it’s the catch basins out front.”

He and the VanGessels may file suit against the city depending on the results of a planned soil survey, said Heeringa, co-owner of E&R Sales, a billiards supplier located inside 41 S. Division, next to tenant Pub 43.

...
De Clercq's correspondence indicates the building owners have inquired about replacing the buildings with surface parking, which would require city planning and zoning approvals.

He said bringing the buildings up to code would take a lot of money.

“There’s enough deterioration and settlement that has occurred that it would take a sizable investment to rectify the situation, even if it could be rectified,” he said.

“The first floor looks like it’s twisting,” he said. “That’s just not normal.”
...

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi..._division.html