Cleveland Heights Council Declares Former Pick-N-Pay, Medic Building Nuisance

Cleveland Heights City Council declared the building at 2920 Noble Road, a former Pick-N-Pay and Medic drug store, to be a nuisance, and authorized that the building be demolished as soon as possible at its meeting Monday, Oct. 15.

The vote was 5-0, as Mayor Ed Kelley was absent and Council Member Cheryl Stephens recused herself.

The property operated as a Pick-N-Pay for a number of years and most recently was a Medic drug store, said Council Member Jason Stein. But it has sat vacant for more than a decade, and is a safety hazard and a "blighting and deteriorating factor in the neighborhood," according to council documents.

Council ordered the owner since 1994, David. F. Bolger Trust, to raze the commercial building. But if the owner does not comply, the city will be authorized to demolish the structure at an estimated cost of $40,500, and assess the cost of abatement against the land.

Though the building's interior has not been used in a number of years, its exterior received a face-lift recently. The outside of the building was decorated with a series of soup can murals in the spring of 2011.

According to a memo from Rick Wagner, Cleveland Heights housing programs manager, the building had 39 interior and 41 exterior violations in 2002, and the structure has continued to deteriorate since that time.