TWIN FALLS, Idaho — An abandoned clinic building in downtown Twin Falls has sat vacant for roughly 20 years, and despite a city order to demolish it, the owners are nowhere to be found.
WATCH: Twin Falls ordered an LLC tied to Galena Opportunity Fund to demolish an abandoned clinic. A year later, no one can find the owners.
Sharon Post lives a block away from the city park, where she takes her dogs on a daily walk — a route that takes her past the old clinic, with its boarded-up windows, broken-down security fence and overgrown weeds.
"It makes this whole neighborhood look trashy and it needs to be dealt with," Post said.
Post says her concerns go beyond the building's appearance.
"I know that people break in there – have broken in there, they sleep in there... it just attracts an undesirable element right here to this area and it needs to be dealt with by the city," Post said.
Ariana Suaste works in the area and passes the building every day.
"I think it's an eyesore and I think it's taking up space that could be used more efficiently — and I think something needs to be done, and the city should be taking steps to make this space more useful," Suaste said.
RELATED: 'Public nuisance' declaration for the old clinic in downtown Twin Falls, owner ordered to demolish
The building is full of dangerous asbestos and has no active fire suppression system. In January 2024, the Twin Falls City Council voted to declare the old clinic a public nuisance and ordered the owners — an LLC connected to Galena Opportunity Fund — to demolish the building at their own expense.
A year and a half later, the company is nowhere to be found and the clinic still stands.
"We have tried numerous attempts to talk to the owner – through certified letters, through emails, through other communications...and have not received any response," Twin Falls City Council member Cherie Vollmer said.
Vollmer says when the city declared the building a nuisance, it was given a court order allowing it to demolish the building and bill the owners. But that cost is significant, and there is no guarantee taxpayer money spent on the project would ever be recovered.
"The estimate that we have received, after a thorough inspection, is that it is going to cost several million dollars to demolish – that is to do the asbestos abatement and to demolish," Vollmer said.
While the city weighs its options, Post says she has a solution — especially as more and more events are held at the city park across the street.
"This needs to be taken out and they need to put in a multi-level parking structure here, so people are not parking in front of the residents' houses and trashing them too," Post said.
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