Just minutes before 3pm today, a vacant building in Benton Harbor's central business district literally collapsed into the street, sending debris all the way to the centerline of Business Loop 94, which is alternately called W. Main Street in the city. Fortunately nobody was hurt, and at that particular moment, the street was free of moving traffic.
Ironically, the front half of the building plunged when a major wooden beam gave way dropping the roof into the interior of the building on the same day that the owners and operators of 221 Main Street in St. Joseph, a couple of miles away, were purposely tearing off their own roof to make way for a new roof top dining facility coming soon.
For Chicago real estate developer Bryan Secklemann today's collapse was no doubt very concerning, but, depending on the damage involved may have either helped his next project to advance or put a crimp in those plans. Secklemann, who has invested heavily into classic old buildings in downtown Benton Harbor for some 15 years now, owns the building and was on his way from his corporate offices in Glenview, Illinois even as his team was on the ground here cleaning up the aftermath of the collapse.
Benton Harbor Public Safety Officers were on the scene within minutes of the reported cave-in and immediately dispatched Public Works Foreman Dimetrius Meeks and a team of co-workers to clear the street and sidewalk of debris and stabilize the structure before turning it over to Victor Garcia from South Haven, one of Secklemann's compatriots for further assessment as he made his way to the scene.
The building at 221 W. Main was the long time headquarters for Ridge & Kramer Auto Parts, an auto after-market dealer who owned many sites around Southwest Michigan before selling recently to Fisher Auto Parts. The front of the building was vacant, and the rear was being used for limited storage at the time of the collapse. The rear of the building still looks to be reasonably salvageable and intact for the moment, but that could change as investigators get inside to see what other structural stress may exist.
Bryan Seckelmann was first attracted to the Benton Harbor Arts District and its rehabilitation potentials by his former instructor Jerry Catania who rehabbed the historic Hinkley Building that anchors the Water Street Glassworks and Water Street Gelato. When Seckelmann saw the progress being made in the Arts District in 1999 he purchased the former Office Lounge Building at 193 Territorial Road. At that time he told reporters, "Bringing something back from the dead is pretty neat." His four year restoration project on the old building yielded first class loft living on the upper floors and a popular bar on the ground floor. He said at that time, "This is my love, doing buildings, I'm going to move here one of these days."
Seckelmann has also worked diligently on bringing back to life the former night club at 165 E. Main Street across from the Dwight P. Mitchell City Center Park. That's been his labor of love dating back some seven years now. He's been working to bring it back to the way it looked in 1879. His hopes are to rent out the second floor of the beautifully restored building for weddings and other events this year, while continuing with plans to open a pizza restaurant and bar on the ground floor.
His exact vision for the former Ridge & Kramer Building is unknown…but everything he does he does in a first class way, so stay tuned to see what magic he will turn from the disaster that occurred earlier this afternoon.
