Nearly a year and half since the demolition of the Goerlich building downtown, city leaders are looking to bring down another old abandoned structure in the community.

Members of the Dowagiac City Council approved a grant request to the Michigan State Housing Development Program for funding to demolish the former Lincoln School building, located at 407 E. Division St. The city is requesting $100,000 — the maximum amount permitted — through the program’s blight elimination program, the same source that helped fund the tear down of the Goerlich building at the corner of Division and Railroad streets in 2015.

The former schoolhouse, which was last used by the Encore Dance Company, has been unoccupied since 2013. While a developer was interested in transforming the building into an apartment complex in 2014, the project eventually died, said Dowagiac City Manager Kevin Anderson following Monday’s meeting.

While city leaders spoke with several prospective developers in the years following, none of these discussions materialized into a tangible plan, Anderson said.

“It’s one thing to talk about something. It’s another thing to actually put together all the financial pieces to make a project like that happen,” he said.

On top of the difficulty in redeveloping the building, the structure faces constant vandalism and is rapidly deteriorating, Anderson said.

“When you layer all those things together, the building needs to be removed for the community’s overall health and wellbeing,” the city manager said.

The building came back into public ownership in April, when Cass County  acquired it through tax reversion, Anderson said. Several weeks ago, the blight elimination program opened up for grant applications, prompting the city to apply for funding.

Although the city is applying for the maximum amount of funding, leaders are still working on getting a firm estimate on the demolition cost, which will likely exceed $100,000, Anderson said. The city will pay for anything above that amount out of pocket — if the city’s application is approved, that is.

Unlike in 2015, the blight elimination program is providing extra points to projects that have a developer lined up to redevelop the demolished property, which the city does not have in this case, Anderson said.

“I think we will have a strong application that meets the criteria for the grant, but there are so many other variables at play that I cannot say with certainty we will get it,” he said.

Anderson said he should receive word within 45 days after the submission deadline on June 21 whether or not the city’s request was approved.

In the event that happens, the city should have the school building down by the end of the year. City hall will then restore the property and determine what to do with the land, Anderson said.

The city-owned playground in front of the building will remain intact and open to the public regardless of what happens to the Lincoln School property, the city manager said.