LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A city inspector last week cited the owner of a downtown Louisville church building that caught fire Wednesday night, saying the property wasn't properly boarded up and posed a safety risk to the public.

KY Medical Center Hotel LLC, which bought the former St. Paul's German Evangelical Church and two nearby parcels on E. Broadway in 2021, was fined $700 for two violations: failing to keep a gated area between two buildings secure and failing to keep the site clean, including removing debris and other things such as "feces, needles, bedding, material, etc."

That action was the latest in a series of Metro government inspections that have led to 11 citations and violations since the 2021 sale, piling up penalties of nearly $4,000, online records show.

The city has been paid $483.04, according to the Department of Codes & Regulations.

The hotel company filed plans in 2020 for an $80 million, 11-story development with hotel rooms and extended stay apartments that would cater to doctors and other workers at nearby hospitals.

Matthew Williams, an owner of the building who was at the scene Thursday, told a reporter in a brief interview that there still are plans to redevelop the area, before saying he had to leave.

There were no reported deaths from the three-alarm fire that was called in shortly before 8 p.m. Wednesday. Louisville Fire Capt. Donovan Sims said one person may have been hurt but left the scene before getting treatment.

Initial reports indicated that people may have been "hanging out of the window with smoke on the roof."

The vacant St. Paul's German Evangelical Church on East Broadway caught fire Wednesday night.

In all, records show, city inspectors have made 24 visits to the property since July 2020. Those inspections began at the urging of Louisville police, said Emily Martin, a codes department spokeswoman, who said there were initially "minor trash violations," but in the months that followed the building was found open. That required the city to board it up.  

In 2021, a fire in a neighboring building made the church property "hazardous," Martin said.  

The building was secure for a while, but in 2023, officials noticed that the property had become a homeless encampment.

"Despite our continuous efforts, the building has been repeatedly broken into, posing risks to the neighborhood. Recent attempts to contact the owner have largely failed. Our last visit was on October 3, 2024, when we requested the owner to secure the building again," Martin said in an email.

KY Medical Center Hotel LLC is in "bad" standing with the Kentucky Secretary of State, which keeps records of businesses operating in Kentucky. The company has not filed its required annual report since 2023.

Metro government also has placed several liens against the owners in order to get paid for previous property maintenance cases.

The property tax on the site has gone unpaid, with a Tennessee-based company buying the tax debt. Such "certificates of delinquency" are often a precursor to foreclosure actions. 

More than 60 firefighters battled the blaze on Broadway, which remained partially closed Thursday afternoon as crews worked to put out hotspots. 

The church was built in 1906 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 

The cause of the fire is under investigation.  

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