ALBION — A more than 125-year-old opera house in downtown Albion could become a community center, offices or have upstairs apartments if a local preservation group can find a buyer interested in redeveloping it.
For $65,000 and a plan on how the building should be fixed up, the former Albion opera house could be yours.
Indiana Landmarks, a statewide historic preservation group, posted the building for sale in mid-April and is looking for buyers who will be willing to purchase and renovate it. The opera house, 107 W. Jefferson St., is one of the few remaining original buildings in downtown and could be a draw to people interested in seeking out historic Indiana properties, the president of a downtown revitalization group said.
The aged building is going to need some work, though, before it’s ready to reopen. The exterior is in fair shape, with a newer roof, but will need brick repair and could use updated windows. The interior will likely need a total redo to update electric, heating and cooling, and transform it for a new use. The building has been vacant for about 20 years.
The opera house is a key property in the ongoing downtown redevelopment work that’s included redoing streets and sidewalks, and making facade improvements that have been helped along with grants, Super Town of Albion Revitalization Team President Steven Hook said.
“That, paired with the historic jail, that will bring some interest into the town as well and trying to increase economic development downtown and beautification,” Hook said.
No one is seriously interested in the building yet, but it’s only been listed for sale for about a month, Indiana Landmarks Northern Regional Director Todd Zeiger said.
A local theater group toured the opera house recently, but the organization would need to do significant fundraising in order to purchase and renovate it, Hook said.
The $65,000 asking price was selected in order to cover the loan and some holding costs while waiting for the building to sell, and leave some room to allow for negotiation during the sale, Zeiger said.
The Albion revitalization team, the Noble County Courthouse Square Preservation Society and Indiana Landmarks all partnered in the fall to purchase the opera house from the previous owners. The first and second floor were owned by separate people, Zeiger said.
Now the entire building is owned by the courthouse square organization. The purchase price was $45,000, according to county property records.
Although the building has been vacant for years, taxes have been paid on it. The building is currently valued at about $92,000 and generates about $2,300 in taxes per year. If the property is purchased, improved and put into use, the annual tax collection should increase.
The three groups got involved in order to save the opera house after there were rumors that the building could be purchased and torn down in order to expand the gas station next door, Hook said.
Now that the building is owned by a preservation group, it is protected by covenants that state it can’t be torn down and the building’s exterior must be preserved, Zeiger said. The opera house is also included on the National Register of Historic Places.
“It doesn’t mean things can’t be changed, they just have to be sympathetic to the historical features. We certainly are available to provide suggestions on the interior. Any building that we get involved with a loan, we put that covenant on because we only want to save them once,” Zeiger said.
The interior of the building could be gutted for any type of use, but local groups are going to want to hear a plan before they choose to sell the building, Zeiger said. Each floor has about 4,000 square feet of usable space.
The first floor is already divided into two separate office spaces, which might make it ideal for shops, professional offices or a small business incubator project, Hook said. The second floor, which was designed as an entertainment space, could be turned into a banquet hall or downtown condominiums, he said.
Hook personally hopes the building could become a new community center or provide some other type of public use, so that everyone in Albion would be able to use the building that was saved through a community effort, he said.
The opera house once hosted community events, traveling entertainers, dances, basketball games and high school graduations, and also served as a temporary home to some county offices.
Indiana Landmarks is will post the for-sale listing on additional sites this summer in hopes of attracting an interested developer, Zeiger said. These types of redevelopment projects need a certain type of buyer with the resources and plan for the property, so it may take a while for the building to sell, he said
“It takes time. It’s a good time of year to be showing properties, and we’re pretty patient,” Zeiger said.