GARDINER — What was once one of the city’s grand old homes, later converted to a nursing home, is now a dilapidated and potentially dangerous eyesore.

Dresden Avenue neighbors and city officials say the building, formerly known as Merrill Memorial Manor, suffers from neglect.

But the owner of the property, Adam Mack, insists to city officials he’s going to save the home he has owned for 17 years and redevelop it into much-needed housing. Mack, though, has made promises about taking action on abandoned buildings before that he has not kept.

YEARS OF NEGLECT

Helen Stevens, who with her husband, Gordon, lives on property that abuts the deteriorated building at 146 Dresden Ave., said they’ve had a front-row seat to the sad, decadeslong decay of the home that once fit with the surrounding neighborhood of mostly stately homes.

Gardiner city councilors at a recent meeting discussed whether the city should declare the building dangerous.

“It’s just so sad, watching this building,” Stevens told city councilors at the meeting. “It was just gorgeous, beautiful inside, there was so much promise in the property. But we’ve just watched, for almost 30 years … just walking away from it.”

The city’s code enforcement officer, Kris McNeill, said the building’s problems include holes in the roof; trim and siding falling off; broken windows that are mostly boarded up; broken structural support beams; and a large crumbling brick chimney that has partially collapsed.

The large holes in the roof — perhaps one of its biggest problems — could be fixed with a new roof. But McNeill said there have been holes in the roof at least since he started with his job with the city, some seven years ago. For all that time and likely more, McNeill said, water has been allowed to rain into the building, surely causing rot that may have damaged the structure so much it has become unsound.

“I’m under the assumption the building is not savable, it’s structurally quite damaged due to the water that’s been intruding over the years,” McNeill said.

McNeill said signs such as footprints indicate people have been breaking in and squatting in the building and it could be “an attractive nuisance” to other potential troublemakers. However, he noted Mack, the building’s owner via a limited liability company, has been fairly responsive about boarding up the windows when asked to by city officials to try to keep people out.

The problem, McNeill said, is the owner isn’t doing anything more than that, but continues to insist he’ll soon begin work to save and repurpose the building.

City tax records indicate the building is owned by RTM Gardiner Limited Liability Corporation. McNeill said that entity, and others that have owned the property, is owned by Adam Mack, a former state legislator from southern Maine.

In his dealings with Mack, McNeill said he’s tried to make it clear to Mack that something needs to be done either fix up or demolish the building.

“I gave him an ultimatum that something needs to happen there, there are concerns about the building,” McNeill said. “He’s been adamant this whole time that he’s going to renovate the building, put several apartments in there, and bring it back to life. I told him if that’s the case, I need to see something soon. A plan. A Planning Board application. Something.”

Mack did not return calls seeking comment.

On April 15, McNeill updated the Gardiner City Council on the status of the property — which councilors have discussed before as many neighbors have complained.

“I’d like to see us move forward with this,” said At-Large Councilor Rusty Greenleaf. “It’s been long enough. It’s been kicked to the curb too many times, and we need to move forward with whatever steps we’re able to take.”

Mayor Patricia Hart suggested councilors and McNeill meet with the city’s attorney to discuss the next steps. That meeting has not yet taken place.

City officials have options to pursue. McNeill said the city could deem the structure to be a dangerous building under state law.

The dangerous building process would allow the city to order the owner to either fix it up or demolish it. If he doesn’t do either of those things, the city could demolish the building, and seek the cost of demolition from the owner.

Or McNeill said the city could also seek to compel the owner to make improvements to the site by enforcing its building and property maintenance ordinance.

PROPERTY AND OTHER TROUBLES

Mack, who represented Standish in the state House of Representatives from 1997 to 2000, has run afoul of the law twice previously, once involving federal housing funds.

In 2013, he was sentenced to six months in federal prison for misusing federal funds, followed by three years of probation, and ordered to pay $384,000 in restitution, after he pleaded guilty. Prosecutors said at the time Mack was an officer in the Portland-based property management firm Chartwell Management Co., and that company managed several multi-unit rental properties including Barron’s Hill apartment complex in Topsham, property that was purchased with mortgage loans subsidized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural development program. In 2007 the company used $384,000 that was meant to be security for the loan to pay unrelated expenses on other properties in which Mack and his family had an interest.

In 2015, Mack was sentenced to 13 months in prison for aiding and abetting visa and marriage fraud for his role in a scheme to allow a woman from Russia and a woman from Ukraine to stay in the United States illegally. He filed paperwork with the federal government saying the women worked for him when they did not. He also helped arrange a fake marriage between one of the women and a man who was paid by the woman.

Mack has also previously been involved in controversy involving his past ownership of a former mill property in Wilton, a property that has since been torn down.

Mack bought the sprawling four-story former Forster Mill, which closed as a mill in 2003, with plans to resell it. After the sale fell through, he told Wilton officials he would have the building demolished so the site could be redeveloped.

He was slow to take action on demolishing the building, however, and didn’t complete the project.

The mill was foreclosed on by the town in 2015 after Mack, through Wilton Recycling LLC, failed to comply with a 2013 lawsuit brought by the town seeking an order of demolition. In March 2015 the town seized the property for failure to pay taxes, shortly after Mack filed for personal bankruptcy.

In 2019 the mill was finally torn down, funded by a combined $500,000 in grants and loans, with much of the cost due to the need to remove asbestos.

DRESDEN AVENUE DEVELOPMENTS

RTM, Mack’s limited liability company, bought the Dresden Avenue building in 2009 for $40,000. It’s currently appraised for property tax purposes at $83,700.

The most home-like part of the building, along Dresden Avenue, was built in 1875, according to city records. The more institutional-looking rear portion was added later.

City property records indicate Merrill Memorial Manor closed as a nursing home in 1997 for financial reasons.

The property is not the only boarded-up building in the neighborhood, as a couple of doors down the street sits a former MaineGeneral hospital building. That building has been unoccupied since 2019, when the hospital moved its family practice and other facilities to Brunswick Avenue, near Interstate 295.

Over the objections of neighbors, afer three years of hearings, the site was approved by the Planning Board for development into Gardiner Green with 34 apartments. However, the developer never followed through to secure permits for the project, and the board’s approval for the project expired last year, with no development taking place.