The Abilene Board of Building Standards voted March 5 to assess $77,000 in civil penalties against the owner of 300 Wall Street for noncompliance with a prior board order dating to April 3, 2024.

City staff recommended civil penalties of $500 per day for the period Oct. 2, 2024, through March 4, 2025 (154 days), totaling $77,000. Robert Marsh, property maintenance inspector, described extensive interior and exterior vandalism, broken windows, unsecured roll-up doors and hazardous mechanical and electrical conditions. Marsh said the property had been inactive for years and that the secretary of state showed the owner LLC as withdrawn in 2011.

Charles Lester, a real estate broker who said he is working with the owner and a commercial adviser, told the board he has recently boarded openings, done landscaping and planned to get temporary electrical service and security cameras. Lester said full renovation would require substantial electrical and HVAC work and estimated a slower timeline but said the owner had cash to invest and expected an initial plan-of-action within months. “Our intent is to get our electrician today to get electricity in there so we could get Wi‑Fi and cameras,” Lester said.

Board member Dugger moved to accept the staff recommendation to assess penalties; McNeal seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

The board also assessed penalties of $15,400 each for two adjacent addresses in the same complex (5502 and 5512 North First Street) after hearing that the same owner controls both properties. A representative asked the board to defer penalties on the smaller addresses while focusing enforcement on the large building; board members declined to forgo penalties.

The assessed civil penalties are intended to encourage remediation and preserve the city’s leverage to enforce the prior order; the board noted the owner has recently engaged a real estate adviser who reported beginning minor repairs.