The McClure-Nesbitt Motor Company building at 1505 E. Main St. was purchased in 2024 by Equity, a Hilliard-based development firm. The company had previously won state historic preservation tax credits in 2023 for a plan to renovate the building for restaurant, retail and office use, and CEO Steve Wathen said last year that Equity intended to move forward with that plan.

Wathen also outlined a broader vision for several other Equity-owned properties in the area, including converting the former Holy Rosary Church at 1667 E. Main St. into an events venue and turning the nearby former Holy Rosary School building into affordable housing. The school building was demolished earlier this summer after the renovation was deemed too expensive.

Equity invested in a new roof and other repairs to the main church building on the Holy Rosary campus but does not appear to have advanced any of its other renovation or redevelopment plans.

When asked by email what happened to the renovation plan for the McClure-Nesbitt building, Wathen replied that “the city is requiring demolition.”

Anthony Celebrezze, deputy director of the city’s Department of Building and Zoning, confirmed there is an unsafe order on the structure dating to 2019 but disputed the characterization that the city is forcing the developer to tear it down.

“An unsafe order means the building is not safe to inhabit and the owner must take steps to alleviate the unsafe order,” he said. “They can begin work with building permits or they can demolish. That is the owner’s choice. Very rarely do we tell someone they must demolish a building as with enough money most buildings can be saved.”

Celebrezze said some work was done on the building between 2019 and 2021, but repairs were not completed and the structure has deteriorated further. It does not appear Equity completed any significant work on the building since an affiliated LLC bought it in March 2024, and a 2026 aerial photo shows significant damage to the roof.

Rob Leis, a nearby resident who regularly walks his dog past the building and the Holy Rosary campus, said a portion of the roof has visibly collapsed.

“It’s a bad loss [for the neighborhood],” Leis said, adding that Equity has “just done nothing to keep it from deteriorating further.”

Leis said he has been concerned about Equity’s stewardship of the historic buildings it owns since the firm began acquiring them several years ago.

“It’s just sad to see these buildings be neglected to the point that they’re literally falling apart,” he said, adding that the company has also failed to secure the buildings to keep people from breaking in, leading to fires and other issues.

Although area commissions are typically notified of demolition requests within their boundaries, Celebrezze said a commission review is not required when an unsafe order is in place.

Nathan Harris, chair of the Near East Area Commission, confirmed the commission did not hear from Equity about either demolition and that the developer has not reached out to discuss plans for the properties it controls in the neighborhood.

The demolition marks the second historic building on the Near East Side to be lost under Equity’s ownership in recent months, intensifying questions about the future of the remaining historic structures the firm holds, including the former Holy Rosary Church.