Demolition set for graffiti-covered former Gusti’s site across from Scott’s Addition

The vacant buildings have fallen into disrepair in recent years. (Mike Platania photo)

Three years after filing for demolition permits for the site, a local developer’s assemblage of derelict buildings in the Museum District may finally see the wrecking ball before year’s end.  

Steve Leibovic says he’s moving ahead with razing the vacant, graffiti-covered buildings at 2901-2923 W. Broad St.

The buildings, most of which were one-time home to Gusti Restaurant Equipment & Supply, have sat dormant since the Gusti family relocated their business a few miles west in 2019. The structures have fallen into disrepair in the years since. 

Steve Leibovic

Shortly after Gusti moved out, Leibovic bought the roughly 2-acre plot for $5 million, and in 2021 he began planning to redevelop the site, but work never got underway. 

Now, Leibovic said he’s planning to finally have the buildings razed by the end of the year. S.B. Cox Inc. is the demolition contractor for the project. 

“I think getting the buildings demoed will be a real plus for the community,” Leibovic said. 

Once demolition is complete, the lot is likely to lay fallow for a bit longer as Leibovic said he’s still working on redevelopment plans for the site, which will likely involve a mix of uses, including apartments. 

“We’re waiting, number one, for interest rates to come down and number two, for all of the many, many apartments going up in the area to be filled up so we don’t open up into a saturated market,” he said. “Those are really the two big considerations that we are looking at right now which will impose somewhat of a delay.”

Leibovic said high interest rates and inflation were what initially delayed the site’s redevelopment, and that he thinks things are getting better on that front, but that the incoming Trump administration’s policies may change that. 

“We’re certainly going in the right direction with inflation (but) I’m skeptical about the inflationary pressures that are going to be added with increasing deficits and tariffs under the incoming administration,” he said. “But we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.”

Leibovic’s assemblage is the area highlighted in green. (BizSense file photo)

Leibovic is working with Poole & Poole Architecture on planning the development. The plot, which is spread across nearly a dozen individual parcels and has frontage along Grace, Sheppard, Wayne and Broad streets, is zoned TOD-1, which allows for mixed-use buildings up to 12 stories. 

Catty-corner to the Leibovic parcel is the recently completed Soda Flats building. The seven-story building from Bank Street Advisors has 89 apartments plus commercial space. 

A few blocks west along Broad Street is another vacant building, 3501 W. Broad St., which was once a Wells Fargo branch. That parcel, which also sits on nearly two acres, sold in recent weeks to Thalhimer Realty Partners for $4 million.

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