It looks like the building at 605 West Gaines Street is scheduled to be razed in the coming weeks. It’s an amazing building that would make a wonderful bar. The new building is apparently going to be a combination of three story row houses with some retail space on the first floor.
Link to somebody’s photobucket site with a sketch of the new building here.
Link to the demolition permit here.
Link to the property record here.

I’m sad to see the old building, which has a rich history, go, but the new row houses will help infill the downtown area. I just hope that greed and yuppie/buppie design arrogance won’t run off all the small businesses that make the Gaines Street area so interesting. I’m sorry about the on-street parking, which I hope is a temporary measure. The area would be better served by transit, bike and pedestrian access. I suspect that once the area gets some resident owners, the on-street parking madness will be revisited and a more human friendly solution adopted.

1000 imaginary TallyCast points and a free TallyCast coffee mug to the commenter who provides the most complete history of the present building at 650 West Gaines. Extra points awarded if you know what was there before the current building.