I recently purchased this two-story commercial building in Mt Carmel, Illinois at 413 N Market Street that I was going to use for a warehouse/storefront for my electrical supply business. However, my wife is pregnant with our second kid and I realize that I’m not going to have the time to put into repairing this building before my son is born. So my loss is your opportunity.
The building is on the same block as the county courthouse and is along the main commercial strip in town. Part of the roof has come up, so there has been extensive water damage, and I imagine that some of the roof membrane along the edges has come up as well (as evidenced by the damage to the very front of the building and the warped walls). In spite of that, the tin ceiling is intact in much of the front of the building, even though it’s been covered by a drop ceiling. The tile floor is crumbling where there is floor on the first floor, and the back half of the 1st floor of the building is in very rough shape.
There’s significant damage to the stairs to the second floor. I can’t say much about the state of the second floor apartment, because the photographer I’d hired to get more photos couldn’t unlock the door to the second floor, so there are no photos of that.
The total lot is 16.5 feet wide by 182 feet in length. The building appears to go back the entire length, but the back part appears to be only a single story. I don’t know how large the second floor space is.
The building is in a TIF district (ask me for more details on that), and there’s a grant program for facade improvement in that area (again, ask for more details).
The Future:
I could still see this as a warehouse if you had some sort of e-commerce business specializing in smaller items (i.e., no forklifts, no docks). I imagine you could use the front space as an artist studio or a medical/dental office or any sort of store. I could also see it as a really awesome club or even a bar. It could simply be an investment. Or it could be for some use that I’m not even thinking of. There’s a fair bit of foot traffic along Market Street.
For the sale, I’d be open to a contract for deed at $1500 down, roughly $200/month, at 5% interest, until the balance is paid (whatever that breaks out to on an amortization table) or some other roughly similar terms. If you’d like, I’d be open to setting the first six months of the payment to $50/month so that you’ll have the funds to start making whatever repairs you like. You’d pay the property taxes for the time after you purchase it (meaning that I’d pay the taxes due in 2021 for 2020 and a prorated amount of the taxes due in 2022 for 2021) and I’d require that you carry some sort of insurance for the building (details to be discussed and mutually agreed upon). To complete the sale, I imagine that we’ll need to go through some local attorney: I’d be happy to split the costs of an attorney you pick 50/50 to draw up the contract and record the deed and whatever other fees there are that Wabash County requires. Alternatively, if you were to pay cash for the building, I’d cover the closing costs and simply arrange for a local title company to handle everything.
If you’re interested in the building, let me know and I’ll be happy to share more photos with you. And if you’re interested after that, I’ll be happy to show it to you. Feel encouraged to ask questions and I’ll answer them to the best of my ability and knowledge.