A blighted property in Youngsville is going to stay standing a little longer.

The problem structure is located at 1 E. Main St. and is owned by Richard C. Young, according to online Warren County assessment records.

The Times Observer previously reported on the incident when the partial collapse occurred back in February.

The building was constructed in 1930, and used an old style of construction that included layers of bricks between wood frames, as opposed to cement shells with outer layers of brick, officials said at the time of the partial collapse. A portion of the brick veneer failed earlier this year.

Youngsville Borough Manager Lisa Hagberg told the Warren County Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday morning that the borough is “going to wait on the free and clear (tax sale) in May or June” before taking further action.

She said there is “no sense throwing good money at it” until the property can be procured.

County Planner Dan Glotz suggested the borough cordon off the area and Hagberg said “we have barricades there but they keep getting moved.”

Lorri Dunlap, the county’s grants administrator, said she started the environmental review process that’s part of utilizing Community Development Block Grant funds, noted that there are two buildings located on the parcel – one behind the one deemed blighted – and that she is not sure the second one is “necessarily in a blighted condition.”

She said that it was possible CDBG funds could only be utilized to tear down the front structure.

Dunlap told the RDA that the state Department of Community and Economic Development is now asking for rehabilitation estimates, that the properties be vacant for at least a year as well as an economic viability analysis.

Authority Chairman Charles Barone suggested that the municipality could step in and take action if the building presents a safety concern, referencing a problem building taken down on State Street in North Warren several years ago.

Hagberg told the RDA that the owner has been very easy to work with and said they have had a contractor analyze the interior of the structure, who recommended that it could be saved but the cost would be “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“That’s a work in process,” Dunlap said of the project. “(There is) time to do some of the groundwork we need to do.”