An order to demolish the larger segment of Kuhn Hospital on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard could soon come from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, the city’s community development director said Thursday.

Community Development Director Victor Grey-Lewis said he is putting the abandoned former state hospital under the city’s slum clearance ordinance that allows the city to take over a building, renovate or demolish it, and sell the property to recover the costs.

“The hospital has been, in my opinion, an eyesore to the community even before I took public office, which has been 20 years, now. The residents in that community have wanted it taken down,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said. “Every time we get right at the door of either acquiring it or taking it down, another roadblock shows up.”

Grey-Lewis said the building’s condition would allow the city to condemn it as a menace and threat to the health and safety of city residents and proceed to advertise for bids to take it down.

Previous attempts to take the building down have been prevented because it has asbestos, and state Department of Environmental Quality regulations require the city to have an asbestos assessment of the building before it can begin steps to raze it.

Mayfield said Wednesday he wants to see the building demolished and removed. Grey-Lewis said changes in the building’s condition have improved the city’s chances to take it down without getting the assessment.

“The roof of the big building has collapsed and the building is in danger of falling in,” he said. “This gives us the reason to move ahead and take it down.”

The city has stepped up its efforts to remove the building in the aftermath of the abduction and murder of Sharen Wilson, whose body was found on the 12.8-acre Kuhn property last weekend.

Under state law, the city must hold a hearing with the property owner and all people or companies that have an interest in the property, in which a plan must be presented to renovate the property or tear it down. If no one attends the hearing, city officials can proceed to condemn the property and advertise for bids to raze it.

In the Kuhn property’s case, notifying all the interested parties could take some time.

According to Warren County tax records, the property is owned by the Esther Stewart Buford Foundation, based in Yazoo City. Local contractor Pete Buford, who is listed as the foundation’s incorporator by the Mississippi Secretary of State, said the foundation owns the property, but he has no plans for it.

Linda Smith, who is identified on the non-profit corporation’s website as an incorporator, said the property was sold to a Meridian-based investment company, SKL Investments. Warren County Assessor Angela Brown said a check of tax records indicated Long Land Investments, a subsidiary of SKL, acquired the property through a tax sale in 2014. Multiple attempts to contact SKL officials about the property were unsuccessful

Assistant city attorney Bobby Robinson, who is doing a title search on the Kuhn property, said county records show Long Land paid the back taxes on the property in 2012, and acquired the property after the foundation failed to redeem the land within two years.

Tax records show Symbiotic Partners, another Meridian company, paid the taxes in 2013.

The Esther Stewart Buford Foundation has had the property since 2000, and since then it has been a problem for the city. Community Development records show a series of letters to the foundation requiring it to cut and clean the property.

Photos accompanying the documents show tall weeds and grass, rusted and corroded pipes and exposed asbestos, broken windows and walls and broken ceiling tiles and pipes.

Grey-Lewis said he wants to see the city take the building down and turn it over to a private developer who will be able to take the site and develop a housing complex.

A former city hospital, the city sold Kuhn to the State of Mississippi in 1956 for $5, and the state operated the facility as a charity hospital, initially known as the Vicksburg Charity Hospital, until 1989, when Gov. Ray Mabus closed the state’s charity hospital. The city regained the property in 1990 under an agreement with the state to turn it over to a private corporation.

In 1993, the building was considered as a possible veterans home, and in 1994, it was considered for a possible 38-bed adolescent psychiatric ward.

In 1999, the building was sold to the Lassiter-Studdard Group Inc., which planned to open a 100-bed clinic and assisted living center. The plans fell through, and in 2000, the company donated the building to the Esther Stewart Buford Foundation.