A month before the six-story building in downtown Davenport partially collapsed, a real estate firm was in talks with the owner to purchase it, emails show.
Mike Gudat, of March 2 Ventures, a Peoria Heights-based real estate development and acquisition company, emailed a city of Davenport employee April 24, 2023, asking about tax credits and permits at 324 Main St.
"As discussed, we are talking with the owner of the property at 324 Main Street Davenport about possible purchase," Gudat wrote in an email to a Davenport city employee, obtained by the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus via a Freedom of Information Act request.
A little more than a month later, the building partially collapsed, killing three people and leaving an estimated 100 households displaced who lived in or near the building.
Andrew Wold remains the owner of 324 Main St., and it's unclear whether or why Gudat decided against buying the property.
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When reached by phone, Gudat declined to comment on the situation.
In his email to the city, Gudat asked whether the property was participating in a city tax incentive program called Urban Renewal Tax Exemption, which exempts increases in taxes resulting from improvements made to a property in certain areas of the city for 10 years.
Tom Linehan, the city employee, responded that there was no current URTE exemption on the property, as the owner had not submitted an application for the past URTE cycle.
Gudat also asked whether building permits were transferrable, "As we understand there are a couple of open building permits for the remodel of two areas into apartments."
Linehan, citing the city's building department, said no, permits were not transferrable, but the new owner may apply to complete the work on a separate permit.
County property records indicate Wold purchased the building through Davenport Hotel LLC, for $4.19 million in June 2021.
But city inspectors began including Wold in emails by at least March 2021.
Before that, another limited liability company, Waukee Investments I, LLC, had bought the building from City Center Properties, LLC, in December, 2019 in what county records describe as a "sale between family members or related parties." Both LLCs are connected to Mark Roemer.
In September 2015, City Center Properties, LLC, bought the building from Dav Bldg LC for $3.3 million. The most recent sale before that occurred in 1995, when Landmark Properties LC purchased the building from Northwest Bank & Trust Co., for $2 million, county records state.