Former furniture store building a key to city’s eastern gateway

“Obviously, the building appears to be dilapidated from the outside. I don’t know what it looks like on the inside. It’s an eyesore,” said Jeff Briner, Springfield Twp. administrator and zoning director.

West Carrollton-based Roberds went out of business in 2000, closing its stores across the Miami Valley, including the Springfield Twp. store on East Main Street. The building was actually purchased prior to the furniture store going out of business by Donald Wright, owner of Don Wright Realty, and Kenneth Fletcher, according to Clark County Auditor records. No price was listed.

Wright could not be reached for comment.

Since Roberds left, the 66,000-square-foot building has been used as a flea market and mattress store. Briner said a plan was submitted to use the location as an RV and car sales lot. The plan did not include using the building, but rather building what would be considered a temporary structure for use as a sales office. The plans did not meet zoning requirements, so it was denied.

“I’ve met with the Wrights a number of times for the last three years,” Briner said. “We would work with the owners to do redevelopment or reconstruction, and we would want to do it in a comprehensive way. It wouldn’t do for me to (approve a plan) if the health and building plans weren’t in line with that.”

As part of the county’s eastern corridor plan, the Roberds building would not meet new standards. However, Briner said as an existing structure it was grandfathered into the plan. If the building were torn down, he said the new structure would have to meet exterior requirements.

As a township, Briner said the township is limited in what it can enforce outside the Ohio Revised Code.

“I would like to go in there and say, ‘Hey, clean this up or we will do it ourselves,’ but No. 1, I don’t have the authority, and No. 2, I can’t make (the owners) have the resources to do that,” Briner said.

The building is listed for sale on his real estate website for $2.5 million. The Clark County auditor last appraised the building and land to be valued at about $1.6 million.