City Manager David Fierke said that the local government is in litigation with the owner, KDG LLC, of Columbia, Missouri.

“Right now, we are trying to get the property back,” he said during Wednesday’s Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance Meet and Eat.. “Our argument is they have abandoned it.”

The city owned the building and gave it to KDG in 2016.

The company had plans for commercial space on the first two floors and about 100 apartments on the upper floors. But nothing ever came of those plans.

“They didn’t follow through when it came time to spend money,” Fierke said.

The city first took ownership of the building at 908 First Ave. S. in 2016 when it took the previous owner, Coralee LLC, of Oakland, California, to court. The city successfully petitioned a judge to declare the building to be abandoned and to grant the local government title to it.

On Dec. 19, 2016, the City Council transferred ownership of the building to KDG LLC.

The $30 million renovation of the Warden Plaza was to be part of a major overhaul of part of First Avenue South which was to include a parking ramp and a new recreation center.

But none of those projects advanced.

The eight-story building was developed by Theodore Warden, an Ohio coal mining investor.

The original part of the building, constructed in 1914, consists of four stories and a mezzanine. Three more stories were added in 1916. Apartments, including a penthouse with a swimming pool, were added from 1924 to 1926. The building has housed a hotel, stores and apartments before becoming vacant in the late 1990s.