Owners of the downtown building that partially collapsed in January will have 30 more days to get their own stabilization work under way.

While pledging to do so, one of the owners, New Orleans native Preston Reuther, confirmed he and his wife, Mary, are planning to leave Vicksburg.

&#8220When and where we don’t really know yet,” he said. &#8220We’re not running out of town. We’re going to take care of our responsibility here. That building’s going to be addressed.”

Vicksburg officials had halted work by a Reuther employee and still plan to open bids Monday they sought for the old Thomas Furniture building in the 700 block of Clay Street.

The city will hold off on awarding a bid, however, and instead Reuther will be given time to submit plans by Bill Greenwood of Bentonia-based Antique Wood and Brick Co. of Mississippi to begin.

&#8220We agreed to give him an additional 30 days to implement the plan he’s got before we award the bids,” said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman, acting mayor while Mayor Laurence Leyens is vacationing. &#8220We’d certainly rather have them do it than us do it.”

Reuther said he received a letter notifying him of the offer from City Attorney Bobby Robinson Thursday, just as Reuther said he was planning to file for a restraining order to keep crews off the site.

&#8220We’re very happy the city is going to work with us,” he said. &#8220Rather than go to court and battle that whole thing, I think it’s a good sign and we’d much rather work with the city and not be the adversaries.”

Robinson was not available this morning.

The Reuthers moved to Vicksburg from New Orleans in 2002 and bought several properties to renovate and turn into rental properties. The couple put about half of their 14 properties in the city up for sale in April and May and hung a for-sale banner outside their Clay Street business, Master Wire Sculpture, this week. The Internet sales company employs about a dozen people.

&#8220We’re pretty much shut down. We’ve liquidated our assets. Another week and we’ll be out of there,” said Preston Reuther. &#8220We’ve met some great people here. We have friends here. But it just didn’t work out for us.”

Two sections of the abandoned, 140-year-old brick and mason structure collapsed during cleaning on Jan. 25, less than four months after the Reuthers bought the property to renovate into an antique shopping mall. Twenty-five workers escaped the fall without injuries.

Two other sections, 707 and 709 Clay St., did not come down, but remain a threat to collapse because the mortar between bricks has severely deteriorated, according to numerous inspectors, engineers and contractors who have examined the site. The east end of the block – the Walnut Street entrance to the B’nai B’rith Club, a drive-through teller window for Trustmark Bank and the Adolph Rose Antiques building, which suffered a hole in its west wall during the collapse – has reopened, but employees of Vicksburg Main Street, the Vicksburg Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and the Vicksburg-Warren County Community Alliance are still restricted from their building to the west of the collapse. The Washington Street entrance to the block remains fenced off.

&#8220The only thing holding that building up is a prayer,” Greenwood said last week.

Greenwood’s plan prescribes taking the structure apart by hand, with a crowbar, and not using any heavy equipment that could lead to further collapse and damage to surrounding buildings. The hole in the Adolph Rose building was patched in February in part by using a crane and some large construction vehicles, which did not lead to any apparent further damage to the property.

Thursday’s move came after months of wrangling over the site and the Reuthers’ hiring of Greenwood two weeks ago. The contractor had sought out the property owners for three months since he heard about the collapse, he said, eventually looking them up on city tax rolls. Previously, Reuther had denounced the process and accused city officials of trying to seize the property for private gain.

Based on a report by structural engineer John Madison and a letter from City Inspector Victor Gray-Lewis which said &#8220continued collapse may be imminent,” as well as a &#8220cost-prohibitive” $2.75 million renovation estimate, the Reuthers asked in February to have the buildings demolished. That request was rejected by the city’s architectural review board and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, who did approve stabilization plans drawn up by the Reuthers’ contractor, Freddie Parson, and set a March 11 deadline for plans to be submitted for the work.

Parson, however, was subsequently fired the following week for failing to begin the project, which he said he was unable to do because he had only received mandatory insurance the day before his termination.

Two other local contractors Reuther hired the first week of March said they were also unable to get the necessary insurance to begin work or submit an engineer’s plan before the expiration of the city’s deadline.

In April, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved $17,500 to hire Texas engineer Patrick Sparks to draw a blueprint for stabilizing the property. The bids to be opened Monday are based on Sparks’ plan of work.

Public costs related to the collapse will be enrolled as a lien against the deed to the property that must be paid if and when the property is sold.