Nearly 100-year-old St. Pete church building could be demolished after couple puts life-savings on the line

Nearly 100-year-old church could be demolished

Jennifer Kveglis reports.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A couple striving to preserve and repurpose a 98-year-old church in downtown St. Petersburg was denied by the city's Community Planning and Preservation Commission.

Irene and Noam Krasniansky put their life-savings into taking on the Euclid Church on 10th Ave North.

"For me, it's important. I would like to save this building at all costs," Irene said.

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The couple sold their home in California and used that money to purchase the property last year. It was added to the City of St. Pete's Register of Historic Places in 2004 and has been vacant since 2005.

"My wife and I, we're at a point in our lives where we want to do things that are worthwhile and saving this building is worthwhile," Noam said.

The couple has a vision to repurpose the building into an event space and a bed and breakfast with plans to move into the accessory building on the property themselves.

"When you walk through the doors, and you go down the hall, and you see these huge windows and the light that comes through. It's just magical," Irene said.

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They hope to rebrand it as "The Treehouse." Hurricane Milton damaged the integrity of the building, though, after the couple had already invested $300,000 in exterior work.

"We started working on the outside, because in historical preservation you can do the outside, changing the windows, fixing things," Noam said.

Last week, a City Community Planning and Preservation Commission hearing was held for the couple's proposal.

"We've been trying to get a hearing the past seven to eight months, which is very expensive for us, because we put all of our savings on the line for this," he said. "At the preservation meeting, they voted 3-3, which means we lose."

Noam said some commissioners were concerned about noise and traffic. He explained they have solutions for both of those concerns. Preserve The 'Burg even submitted a letter to commissioners prior to the hearing, recommending approval.

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"I feel like the wind got knocked out of me. I feel like we've gotten so much support, especially on social media and the neighbors," Irene said, "It just doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't you want to save this building?"

As the building deteriorates more by the day, the couple prays it won't have to come down to demolishing the building altogether.

"This building is unsellable. Nobody is going to buy it because there's nothing you can do with it," Noam said. "We have put our life-savings and there's nothing we can do with this."

FOX 13 reached out to the City of St. Pete and the Community Planning and Preservation Commission for a comment, but we did not receive an immediate response.

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