MANSFIELD — The city is edging closer to demolishing 455 Park Ave. West, known to most people as the former YMCA building.

At its meeting Tuesday, Mansfield City Council approved legislation that allows the city to use PRIDE dollars for the demolition.

“It doesn’t automatically mean we’re going to demolish the building, but it gives us the right to demolish it with PRIDE dollars,” explained J.R. Rice, codes and permits manager.

The unofficial cost estimate to demolish the building is around $400,000.

“That’s not including asbestos abatement, so it could go beyond that even,” Rice said.

The city has $1.5 million in PRIDE demolition funds, but Mayor Tim Theaker said he doesn’t want to deplete all of the PRIDE funds on just one building.

Rice said there are other demolition projects he would like to pursue, including a church on the corner of Buckingham Avenue and Grant Street, and a commercial building on the corner of Cleveland Avenue and South Diamond Street.

He pointed to Neighborhood Initiative Program funds as another source, in addition to PRIDE, to help with the demolition of dwellings. NIP funds are used by the Richland County Land Bank to demolish vacant or blighted properties.

Last year there were 121 residential properties demolished with NIP funds and 25 residential properties demolished with PRIDE funds in the city.

“As long as the NIP funds are available for the residential demolitions, I think it would behoove us to do some commercial demolitions with the PRIDE dollars because NIP funds cannot be used for commercial demolitions,” he recommended.

Rice said the city has been trying to get the old YMCA demolished for quite some time. However, he said the city is not committing to the demolition. 

“If the numbers come in where they’re reasonable, we may consider demolishing the YMCA … We’re strongly considering this demolition,” he said. 

If the city moves forward with demolition, it will need to send out for demolition and asbestos abatement bids.

Rice said if it’s demolished with PRIDE funds, the city would issue an invoice for the cost of the demolition to the current property owner, which is listed as 455 Park Avenue LLC.

The city would then assess the cost of demolition to the Richland County auditor, who would eventually foreclose on the property.

The county or city could then become owner of the site, Rice said.

Rice said he talks daily with the Richland County Land Bank to discuss strategies for demolishing properties, including which properties will be taken possession of by the land bank and which properties will be demolished using PRIDE funds.

“The cooperation between the county and the city, between the NIP funds and the PRIDE funds, making these things work together, has been a huge benefit for the City of Mansfield,” said Third Ward Councilman Jon Van Harlingen.

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