PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Bradenton Revival Temple's future up in air

Bradenton Revival Temple was built in 1933 on faith — so declares the cornerstone of the coral-stone structure.

But that faith is now being tested.

The owners of the vacant old church at 725 Manatee Ave. W. will ask the city council Wednesday to allow them to demolish the distinctive-looking structure, now called the Kali Building.

Melton Little and Scott Kallins, local attorneys, purchased the building in 2001 to renovate into law offices for their firm, but the cost of doing so proved prohibitive.

Little and Kallins referred all questions last week to their attorney, William Robinson, who was not available Friday. But in a report they will present to the council, the Fawley Bryant Architects firm estimated the cost to convert the 6,063-square-foot building into usable office space was about $1.5 million, compared with $909,400 to construct a new building of the same size.

“It breaks our heart to even suggest that we take it down,” Little was quoted as saying in a May 2008 Bradenton Herald article about the owners seeking a demolition permit from the city Architectural Review Board.

In a letter to the review board dated March 24, 2008, Little offered the cornerstone, the church pews, various photographs of the building and other historical items to the Manatee County Historical Society.

“We’ve both been in this community a long time and I’m keenly aware of the sensitivity of the building, and believe me, if we had another option we would do it,” Little said then.

The Manatee County Historical Commission has designated the Revival Temple as one of the top 12 endangered historic buildings in the county.

The review board denied the demolition request last year, which prompted the engineering report from the Fawley Bryant firm and the appeal to the city council.

The report found one-third of the roof structure to be “so infested with termites that all framing should be removed and replaced.”

Numerous other deficiencies were noted, but the report indicated a more detailed review was required to verify some of them.

The conclusion noted that a “renovated building’s useful life is estimated at approximately one-half of that of a new building, with a new building’s useful life estimated to be 40 years, and a renovated building’s useful life estimated at 20 years.”

For Cathy Slusser, director of historic resources for the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court office, the loss of any historical building would be an irreplaceable loss to the city and county.

“It’s at the entrance to downtown Bradenton,” Slusser said. “What makes downtown unique compared to St. Petersburg or Sarasota is our historic buildings.

“We can’t afford to lose these resources,” she said. “It’s such a charming building.”

Slusser also questioned whether the engineer who did the structural review has any preservation experience.