A condemned apartment building on Latrobe’s Main Street, now under new ownership, is targeted for demolition.

The timing of when the six-story building at 333 Main St. could face the wrecking ball will depend on the efforts of its owner, The Latrobe Foundation, to find funding for razing it, according to foundation spokesman Jim Okonak.

City officials condemned the building in March 2024, citing pest infestation and other problems including inadequate security and lighting. Tenants had complained of cockroaches.

“There are a myriad of structural and code issues,” Okonak said of the building. “It would be so expensive to try to bring it up to code, it’s just not feasible.

“The building is secured. We’re trying to determine through (Westmoreland County) the cost to raze it and securing the funding to do so.”

While the city took control of access to the building and began pest extermination efforts, then-owner Jay Pan appealed the condemnation order. That appeal ended in late November, when The Latrobe Foundation purchased the property for $200,000.

Pan had listed the building at $279,900 through an area real estate agent.

“There were zoning issues, policing issues and security issues it presented for our community,” Okonak said of the 24-unit building. “The foundation stepped up to address that and to remove those kinds of concerns. We’re trying to raise the bar, to keep this community safe and prosperous.”

There is no specific plan for what might come next once the building has been torn down.

Okonak said the foundation is coordinating with the city and the nonprofit Latrobe Community Revitalization Program.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll have something positive for the future,” he said.

Jarod Trunzo, executive director of the revitalization program, said having the building in the foundation’s hands ends concerns that it could have been purchased by someone who might have allowed it to remain a problem in the town’s business district.

“It’s a positive thing for the community,” he said.

Latrobe officials worked with local human service organizations, including Homes Build Hope and Faith Forward Ministries, to find new living arrangements for tenants who were displaced by the Main Street condemnation.

A member of Latrobe’s blight task force, Trunzo said the group is working on a city measure that would help to “make sure this can’t happen again.”

“It’s too bad the building got to the point where it couldn’t be renovated cheaply,” said Latrobe Mayor Eric Bartels.

He said he recently heard from two people who “would like to live in the city, or near the city, and were having trouble finding apartments for young people as they’re beginning their careers. It’s something the area needs.”

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