Their future unclear, downtown Topeka's aging Nick Chiles buildings are back on the market

With their future uncertain, three aging downtown Topeka buildings owned by early Black Topeka newspaper editor Nick Chiles have been put back on the market.

Cody Foster, who owns the buildings, told The Capital-Journal Tuesday he will still honor an oral agreement that's been in place for nearly a year.

That agreement gives the first right to buy the buildings to international opera singer David Lee Brewer, should he be able to make the purchase.

Brewer taught voice lessons to singing superstar Beyonce when she was between the ages of eight and 19.

He and his cousins, Steven Sims and Raymond Childs, who are all related to Chiles, said in March that the buildings were to be part of a school they planned to create in Topeka to enable some of the world's most gifted youngsters to realize their potential in the arts, culinary arts, entrepreneurship and social empowerment.

The facility is to be known as the "Nick Chiles Institute."

More:Here are the 7 Most Endangered Buildings in 2022 from Kansas Preservation Alliance

'Something needs to happen with them'

Though Brewer had intended to buy the buildings last June, "we still don't have a contract and he's unresponsive about entering into a contract to purchase," Foster said Tuesday.

With "no signed contract and no real communication about him securing funds to purchase the buildings," Foster can't continue to wait on Brewer, he said.

"We are listing them for close to what we have in them between purchase price and abatement, which is significantly more than we offered to sell them to David for," he said. "Something needs to happen with them as they continue to deteriorate in condition and are also an eyesore for (nearby Evergy Plaza)."

Signs saying the buildings were for sale by Kansas Commercial Real Estate Services could be seen there Tuesday.

The signs encouraged potential buyers to contact Mike Morse at mike@kscommercial.com or 785-228-5304.

The Capital-Journal tried unsuccessfully using Facebook Messenger to get in touch with Brewer, who lives in Berlin, Germany.

Foster: Restoration would cost at least $10 million

Chiles edited and published the Topeka Plaindealer from 1899 until he died at age 61 in 1929.

His newspaper, The Topeka Plaindealer, had the largest circulation of any Black newspaper west of the Mississippi River. It was published from 1899 to 1958, making it the longest-running Black newspaper in the U.S.

Brewer, Sims and Childs told The Capital-Journal in March that they planned to acquire three buildings constructed in the 1880s that Chiles formerly owned at 112-114, 116 and 118 S.E. 7th, and two nearby buildings constructed in 1918 at 629 S.E. Quincy and in 1935 at 635 S.E. Quincy.

The buildings are owned by AIM Strategies LLC, a development firm led by Foster.

AIM Strategies bought the three buildings on S.E. 7th with hopes of restoring them but decided to demolish them and rebuild at the site after concluding restoration would cost at least $10 million, Foster said.

Those buildings are part of the South Kansas Avenue Commercial Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

More:Topeka's mayor and council stand between historic Menninger Clock Tower and its demolition

AIM Strategies last February put its plan to raze buildings on hold

AIM Strategies officials discussed their plans for the Chiles buildings last year at a meeting of the seven-member Topeka Landmarks Commission.

The company said it might ask that commission to consider allowing the buildings to be razed.

In making that decision, the landmarks commission would consider whether the demolition would adversely affect the properties’ historic integrity, and adversely affect the historical integrity of the surrounding South Kansas Avenue Commercial Historic District.

Should the landmarks commission deny AIM Strategies' request, that could be appealed to the mayor and city council.

To overturn any decision by the landmarks commission, the mayor and council would need to conclude there was no feasible and prudent alternative to razing the buildings, and that the project includes all possible planning to minimize harm to historic properties and the historic district.

Foster last year expressed a willingness to sell the three buildings for the amount he paid for them, provided the buyer has "a great plan" and the necessary funding to renovate them.

He announced in February that he had put its plans to raze the buildings on hold as he gave Brewer time to obtain financing.

Potential purchasers were born, raised in Omaha, Nebraska

Brewer, Sims and Childs told The Capital-Journal in March that they planned for the five buildings they intended to buy in the area of S.E. 7th and S.E. Quincy to be the site of "money-making educational facilities," which would be part of the Chiles Institute.

Brewer said plans called for them to feature apartments; a hotel called The Chiles; a restaurant called Buchanan's; a bakery called Winnie's Place, named after Nick Chiles' mother; a training center; and a mentoring center, where Topeka children could come to be mentored by Washburn University students.

The actual school where classes would be taught would be elsewhere in Topeka, with the actual location having not yet been picked out, they said.

Childs, Sims and Brewer are great-great-great-great-grandsons of Harrison Chiles, Nick Chiles' uncle, they said. All three were born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska.

Brewer is an international opera singer and vocal coach.

Childs is a longtime chef who works privately and professionally in New York City, where he is also a culinary educator. He owns a historic home in the Catskill Mountains.

Sims lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is retired after working in organizational development with government agencies and nonprofit groups.

Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Owner Cody Foster puts Topeka's Nick Chiles buildings back on market