Mattoon Brown Shoe owner ordered to appear in court on public nuisance charge (2024)

MATTOON — A Coles County judge has ordered the owner of theformer Brown Shoe factory to appear in court on a public nuisance charge or face an arrest warrant.

Defendant Site Rite LLC of Kansas City, Missouri, has countered that it no longer owns the Brown Shoe complex because a Chicago-based company has gained an ownership claim tothe facility at 1400 Piatt Ave. in Mattoon, by paying a previously unpaid property tax bill.

Site Rite representatives did not appear in court Monday for an ordinance court hearing on the charge the city of Mattoon filed in March 2023. The city is seeking the demolition of the 80,000-square-foot former factory, parts of which have been torn down and are open to the elements.

Coles County Circuit Judge Chris Wetzel previously had ordered Site Rite to appear in court to argue why it should not be held in contempt for failing to send representatives to previous hearings.

At the conclusion of Monday's hearing, Wetzel issued an order for Site Rite agent and principal owner Dave Nelson to appear in court on Aug. 12 to make this argument.

"If he doesn't attend on Aug. 12, I will have nothing else to do but issue a warrant," Wetzel said.

City Attorney Dan Jones told the judge Nelson has told City Administrator Kyle Gill that Site Rite no longer owns the Brown Shoe facility because previously unpaid taxes had been paid by another party.

"I will investigate that claim. I just recently heard it," Jones said after the hearing.

Records at the Coles County Clerk's Office show Aboriginal Armadillo LLC of Chicago paid the 2020 property taxes for the Brown Shoe site in October.

However, the 2021 and 2022 taxes are held in trust by Joseph E. Meyer & Associates real estate firm in Edwardsville, which specializes in the collection of delinquent property taxes.

A website for Aboriginal Armadillo contains a mission statement describing it as "a holding company for side projects" that is seeking investors. The contact email on this website does not work and a box saying a contact phone number is coming soon remains unfilled.

Reached by the JG-TC after the hearing,Nelson said he no longer wants to pursue the salvage of the Brown Shoe site's building materials and the redevelopment of the property because of thefts from the property and what he described as a lack of cooperation from the city.

Nelson said he is not familiar with the Chicago company that paid the delinquent property taxes but has told the city he believes he and Site Rite should no longer be subject to the public nuisance case.

"We don't own the property," Nelson said.

On April 15, Wetzelfiled an order of default and a judgment order against Site Rite in this case. The order found the building has been in nuisance condition since at least Nov. 12, 2022, under Site Rite's ownership and ordered it be demolished.

The order also fined Site Rite $50 per day from Nov. 12, 2022, to April 8, 2024, totaling $25,650 and reserved the imposition of additional fines if needed at a later date.