City working with Emperor of India to restore fire-damaged building

Feb. 2--The building that housed the Emperor of India King Thai restaurant was condemned and declared a nuisance by Lewiston city officials after a fire late last year.

Those actions are intended to give the city tools to prevent the structure from hurting people or neighboring properties, not discourage the restaurant from re-opening, said City Building Official John Smith.

The fate of the property at 854 and 858 Main St. has ramifications for the downtown commercial district where it's located, said Courtney Kramer, executive director of Beautiful Downtown Lewiston.

In other communities, restoring or replacing fire-damaged buildings has taken as long as a decade, which is less than ideal, Kramer said.

"They just don't give the customer a sense of a lively and vital place to spend their time and spend their dollars," she said.

Right now the building is safe as long as people don't enter it, because potential hazards such as loose overhead bricks have been removed, Smith said.

The condemnation and declaration of nuisance allow the city to go to court to request a remedy or fix issues that might emerge, such as pest infestations or flooding that could damage neighboring buildings, then place a lien on the property, he said.

The lien would enable the city to recover its expenses if it needed to make repairs by getting its money back in the future if the property were to be sold.

If those types of problems don't surface, an insurance provider is involved and the building's owner is making reasonable progress, it's unlikely the city will take any action, Smith said.

"As long as it is secure, and it's not an attractive nuisance, generally we will allow it to continue for a while," he said.

An attractive nuisance is an unsecured property with potential dangers that draws intruders.

The blaze hit the east side of the structure the hardest, but left much of the west side mostly intact.

That opens the possibility that the west side of Emperor of India, where the kitchen is, could be ready to open in weeks after the work of diligent construction and cleaning crews, Smith said.

The damage on the west side primarily involves smoke damage that reached places like the electrical system, which, if not addressed, increases its susceptibility to another fire, he said.

The east side of Emperor of India is worse.

"The rooftop heating and cooling system is sitting on the floor," Smith said. "It was a full collapse."

Over the top of windows that looked out onto Main Street, there was a steel ledge holding up bricks that ran along the entire building, abutting an adjacent Wells Fargo bank branch. The mortar around the bricks was compromised by the fire, and there was worry the ledge couldn't hold up the bricks.

What happens next depends on Praveen Khurana, Smith said. The city is communicating with Khurana, who is listed as the agent of record for the limited liability company that owns the building.

Attempts by the Tribune last week to reach Khurana were not successful.

An investigation into the fire by the Idaho State Fire Marshal, in cooperation with the Lewiston Police Department and assisted by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, is not yet complete, said Idaho State Fire Marshal Knute Sandahl.

Khurana is facing a felony malicious injury to property charge, which is unrelated to the fire or Emperor of India. A status hearing in that case is set for Monday. Khurana is accused of causing $18,655 of damage to a home on Preston Avenue, from which he had been evicted.

Like city officials, Kramer would like to work with Khurana. Her organization could help him with short-term solutions such as murals that could temporarily spruce up the structure's appearance. Beautiful Downtown Lewiston also could connect him with design firms that could identify solutions and financing possibilities.

"It's not something we're able to able to make happen without the partnership of the property owner," she said.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.

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