Pointe Apartments owners face demolition despite claiming to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on repairs

PLYMOUTH, Ind. -- City leaders in Plymouth are closing in on plans to tear down the vacant Pointe Apartments building.

Back in the summer of 2024, residents were forced to move out of the troubled property because of a leaky roof, mold, and other issues making the building inhabitable.

However, property owners claim they've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on repairs and remodels since then to avoid demolition and hopefully reopen.

City leaders though, say that work isn't enough to open the property back up to tenants.

Tony Collins, the stepson of the property's primary owner, gave ABC57 a tour of the building Wednesday.

He claims his stepfather spent upwards of $400,000 on several repairs over the past year and a half.

One of the biggest repairs is the brand-new roof, worth $165,000.

The old, leaky roof was a big reason for the initial shutdown.

"We had A&M Roofing come in, and they did it; they had it all done within a week," Collins explains. "Brand new roof, all new metal, all new insulation, everything."

Repairs also included a new fire alarm system, at least four furnaces, sprinklers, plumbing and electrical work, and new ceilings and floors in most of the 25 rooms.

"We did everything that they wanted from the sprinklers to the fire alarm, and every time we got done with something it just wasn't good enough, they wanted something else," Collins explains. "Like with the windows being an inch too high now they want us to cut out concrete windows, that's a hundred some grand you know."

Besides avoiding a major financial loss, Collins hoped to reopen and provide low-income housing to the community like before, charging rent as low as three to four hundred dollars a month.

"This building is perfect for them; low-income people could live in it," says Collins.

Plymouth Mayor Robert Listenberger, who was part of the Common Council's decision Monday to appropriate the necessary funds for the demolition of the building, says the city was just ready to part with the troubled property.

"The current owner has not lived up to what he said he was going to do, and there's been one excuse after the other, and I think our council is just tired of it," explains Mayor Robert Listenberger.

Ultimately, he says the improvements made to the building are not enough, or they're incorrectly done, as shown by a third-party inspector in recent months.

"I know the owner may feel as if they've done this and this and this, and yeah they have done some stuff," Mayor Listenberger says. "The sprinkler heads themselves are the wrong ones. They did replace but they're the wrong ones, and they're installed incorrectly. So, what do you do?"

As it stands, the city will move forward with demolition of this building as early as March.

It will cost the city $85,000.