Fire-ravaged site's co-owner: 'I would love to rebuild'

CHAMPAIGN – One of the co-owners of the building destroyed by fire early Friday said he hopes to rebuild on the downtown site.

Jeff Mellander was painstakingly renovating and redeveloping the 1870s-era building – which has been called variously the Metropolitan Building and the Bailey-Rugg building – with his partners, Bob Ballsrud and George Grubb.

Now the building is in ruins, and an adjacent building at 215 N. Neil St. that houses the Dobbins Fraker Tennant Joy & Perlstein law firm is heavily damaged on its third floor.

Also on this date

• Cause of downtown fire won't be known for days
• Battling blaze from on high proves taxing
• Downtown Champaign suffered a similar blow 21 years ago
• Levy hike of almost 10 percent proposed
• Area Veterans Day memorial dedications planned
• Stones, benches honoring veterans to be unveiled in Savoy
• Students learn about geothermal energy project
• Obituaries

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