Owner wants $1.7M by Jan. 10 to spare building

The owner of the historic Frank Lloyd Wright Building in Whitefish “has agreed to sell the building to anyone who puts $1.7 million in his hand by Jan. 10,” the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has learned from a local businessman who is still trying to find investors and raise the money to spare the building from the wrecking ball.

Earlier this week Montana Preservation Alliance executive director Chere Jiusto confirmed that she spoke with Whitefish attorney Ryan Purdy, the legal counsel for building owner Mick Ruis, and Purdy confirmed that asbestos abatement in process inside the building is being done in preparation for a full demolition.

If the demolition is completed, it would be the first viable Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building to be lost in more than 40 years.

“We’re working with a coalition now within Montana and beyond to raise the money to make the purchase to put the building out of danger,” Jiusto told the Daily Inter Lake Friday morning. “We’re a little disappointed that despite a lot of interest [in saving the building] we don’t have any more time than Jan. 10.

“We’re scrambling because there’s so much love and interest in Frank properties,” Jiusto continued. “People of Montana love their culture and history. What a shame it would be for Montana to be the place that breaks the 40-year streak” since the last historic Wright building was demolished.

Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Chicago-based Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation of all Wright-designed buildings, said the Conservancy stands ready to help.

“We’re trying to figure out what the options are, what makes sense, as people are contacting us,” Gordon told the Inter Lake.

In a press release on the Conservancy website, Gordon said this week’s news of the pending demolition of the 1959 Frank Lloyd Wright Building in Whitefish “comes as a great shock to us.

“Fruitful discussions were still taking place to bring about a successful resolution to this case, which the Conservancy and our local partners have been working on for more than a year.”

Ruis, a Columbia Falls developer, purchased the Frank Lloyd Wright Building at 341 Central Ave. for $1.6 million in 2016. His initial plan, reviewed by the Whitefish Architectural Review Committee through a pre-application submitted in November 2016, was to build a three-story mixed-use commercial facility. It’s unknown if that’s still his intention for the property.

The Whitefish Frank Lloyd Wright Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

The 5,000-square-foot Lockridge Medical Clinic was designed by Wright and completed in 1959. The building later served as a bank and then was divided into professional offices when the bank moved in 1980. Most recently it was used for law offices.

Serious inquiries regarding the Whitefish Frank Lloyd Wright building can be directed to the Conservancy at www.savewright.org.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.