(Radio Iowa) – A six-story building in Shenandoah’s downtown district may wind up being renovated after being vacant for more than two decades. Margaret Brady started a realty company in 2019 to renovate and resell flooded properties in the area and is taking on the project and its estimated half a million dollar cost. “If you’ve ever even driven by that building you know it probably has some stuff in there that needs to come out, so the first thing we’re going to do is demo floors one and two. It’s like the storefront and then offices about that and it still has the old mill equipment in there, so that’s going to have to come out,” she says, “so there’s quite a bit of work to do inside.”

The Johnson Brothers building – a livestock feed mill — was built in the early 1940s. The business closed in 1998. Shenandoah officials initially began discussing demolition more than a decade ago, but city officials are now supporting Brady’s plan to turn the building into retail and office space as well as a storehouse and workshop for doors, windows and other materials rescued from other properties. Brady says tuck pointing on the brick building’s exterior is scheduled to start in October. “So hopefully in just a few months they’ll start making the outside look better,” Brady says.

Shenandoah officials and Brady are working on a tax increment financing package of up to a quarter of a million dollars to support renovations.  “It’s not something that I deal with very often, so it’s a little outside my realm,” she says, “so it’s been really a good process and I’m excited to get that project going.” Brady says if all goes well, the renovations will be done in the fall of 2023. She’s hoping the project spurs other redevelopment. “Any time you see positive growth, whether it’s a house or a building, everybody thinks they can do a little better on theirs, too,” Brady says.

Members of the Johnson family have donated 165-thousand dollars toward restoration of the building that was home to the family business for more than 50 years.