No deal: Wright building comes down

After standing for nearly 60 years on Central Avenue in Whitefish, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building came down last week.

Working in the dark of the early evening, two excavators began tearing into the brick building as about a dozen folks gathered to watch. Demolition work continued Thursday morning with dump trucks hauling away debris while only a few passersby took notice.

The building is being demolished following a failed 11th hour attempt led by Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy to purchase the property. After waiting a year, building owner Mick Ruis of Columbia Falls had set a deadline of Wednesday for a buyer to come up with $1.7 million to purchase the historic building.

However, the conservancy announced late Wednesday afternoon that a deal could not be agreed upon and demolition would follow. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Chicago-based conservancy was working with the Montana Preservation Alliance and a local business leader to hopes to come up with a deal that would save the building. It is the first viable building designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright to be torn down in more than 40 years.

More than a year ago plans to demolish the building and redevelopment of the commercial property came to the forefront. Following public outcry over the plans in late 2016, Ruis put the building up for sale, but no one came forth to buy it.

Attorney Ryan Purdy, the legal counsel for Ruis, told the Whitefish Pilot earlier this week that Ruis delayed his plans for the building despite his own expense to do so and had looked at avenues to work with potential buyers. Last week Ruis set a deadline of Jan. 10 for a $1.7 million cash purchase of the building.

The conservancy announced late Wednesday that a buyer to pay the full asking price could not be found and “attempts to negotiate a more reasonable deal continued until 4:15 p.m. Central Time, but were not successful.”

The conservancy, under 341 Central LLC, submitted a full-price offer to purchase the building to Purdy on Monday, Jan. 8 specifically for the purpose of saving the building from demolition. The offer provided for a substantial refundable deposit paid directly to the owner with 60 days to close on the full asking price. Ruis, through Purdy returned on Jan. 9 asking for a 50 percent greater nonrefundable deposit paid the same day and terms that the remaining amount of the purchase price must be paid by Jan. 22, and there would be no time for an inspection of the building, the conservancy claimed.

The conservancy says it requested to submit a substantial portion of the deposit and requested one more week to launch a crowd-funding campaign to raise the full deposit amount, but this offer was rejected.

“The board of directors of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy agreed the owner’s proposals provided no realistic path to acquiring the building, short of an investor willing to put down $1.7 million cash without reasonable time to complete their own due diligence on the property,” said Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, in a prepared release.

The conservancy and its partners first learned on Jan. 3 that the building was being prepared for demolition learned the next day that the owner would delay if a cash purchase could be made by Jan. 10.

Plans for the property were submitted in November 2016 to the Whitefish Architectural Review Committee for a three-story mixed-use commercial facility to replace the building. Whether those plans remain in place for the building is uncertain.

The building was designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1958 as a medical clinic. Wright died in 1959 before the 5,000-square-foot building, which became the Lockridge Medical Clinic, was finished.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Aug. 14, 2012.