City May Demolish Former Boarding House on Grace Avenue

After buying a former "burdensome" boarding house on Grace Avenue last year, the city may consider demolishing it.

That news comes after the city has been unable to sell the home.

City officials recently told Lakewood Patch that the property, as an empty lot, may be offered to neighbors.

According to LoveLakewood.com, a potential buyer approached the city last year with a plan to turn the home into a halfway house, but that proposal was turned down.

The city recent dropped its asking price to $43,000, but the rehab could cost more than $100,000.

The city’s building and housing director Dru Siley said that the high cost of fixing up the home makes it “very unattractive to potential investors,” according to LoveLakewood, adding doubt that the city would “even be able to give it away.”

Meanwhile, a deal for the city’s other former boarding house on Mars Avenue is in negotiations.

Lakewood City Council approved the purchase of both homes in a packaged deal, from Aivars and Anita S. Auzenbergs, for $207,000, in March 2012.

The city is looking to sell the homes — with new deed restrictions — as single-family homes.

The large Victorian Gothic home at 1436 Grace Avenue is the site of a former six-resident boarding house that the city bought last year.

Just steps away from the Lakewood Public Library, the home at 1446 Mars Avenue has (count ‘em) nine bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms.