Bell tolls for Provo church
Preservationists miss deadline for funds; developer says deal is dead
The local preservationists who hoped to save and renovate Provo's historic Spanish Mission-style Catholic Church building claimed they had $1.3 million in escrow at 5 p.m. Thursday night, but they couldn't transfer the funds to complete the purchase by that time, and the church now may be demolished.
The developer who has an option to buy the building from the Catholic Church declared the deal dead. He refused to give the Historic Provo Preservation Foundation another day and plans to tear down the building to make way for condominiums.
The failure to meet the 5 p.m. deadline leaves the building vulnerable to demolition. It had been protected on the Provo Landmarks Register, but it was removed automatically from the register when the deal collapsed.
The developer will apply for a demolition permit, perhaps as early as Monday, said the attorney for Landmark Partners, Adam Ford. City offices are closed today.
A complex deal hatched at the April 3 Provo City Council meeting and hailed as a miracle had appeared to save the church building, built in 1923.
The preservation foundation agreed to pay $1.25 million by Thursday's deadline, with $50,000 going to Landmark Partners and $1.2 million going to the church, which needs the cash to construct a new church in Orem for the St. Francis of Assisi Parish.
With that agreement in place, the City Council voted to keep the building on the landmarks register until Thursday, instead of removing it on April 3 but stipulated that the building would be removed automatically if the deadline passed without a sale.
Foundation Chairman Doug Bush said Thursday night that the group would stick by its promise not to obstruct demolition, despite accusations by both sides that the deadline passed because the other side failed to act in good faith.
Bush and other group members, including Timpanogos Neighborhood Chairman Scott Bingham, arrived at a Provo title company just before the deadline. They were angry that they had learned 90 minutes earlier that the church wouldn't let them use the building as collateral for a loan they had secured to make up the difference between the purchase price and what they had raised.
That seemed to scuttle the deal, but Bush emerged from the meeting later to say it had been resurrected. The rollercoaster ride ended when Bush said a software glitch at another title company made it impossible to transfer the funds.
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