FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The Village Square shopping center in downtown Fairhope gutted by a fire last week was condemned by the city’s building department Tuesday.

(The building) is unsafe to occupy,” Barry Fulford, city building official, said Tuesday afternoon, regarding the meaning and implications of a condemnation declaration. “We will allow limited entrance to remove personal items but (the tenants) cannot set up shop.”

The condemnation decision followed the receipt by Fulford of an engineering report regarding the building’s safety and structural integrity after last Wednesday’s fire.

“The engineer we hired walked out of my office less than two minutes ago after handing me the engineering package,” Fulford said Nov. 23, adding the report led to the department’s condemnation decision.

The building could be posted with a condemnation sign as early as Wednesday afternoon, he said, but might not occur until next week, following notification of the building owners and all the tenants who had shops inside, he said.

“That does not necessarily mean it cannot be rebuilt,” Fulford said of the building dating to the 1920s that housed a historic downtown movie theater. “But it is structurally and extensively damaged, and the repairs on it, from the looks of it, would probably cost more than the rebuilding of it.”

The building is owned by RBR Partnership, which consists of partners Baldwin County Circuit Judge James Reid, John Bethea, and the widow and three sons of the the late Buddy Richmond, who was an original partner, Reid said by phone Wednesday.

“We have not made a decision yet because it’s just so early in the process,” Reid said regarding what the owners plan to do with the building. “We don’t know how exactly the numbers will work out. We do have insurance on the building, and we’re waiting for the insurance company to finish their inspection and make an adjustment and response as to what they feel like should be paid under the policy.”

Efforts to reach Bethea were unsuccesful.

Fulford said the building department would give the tenants a chance to salvage what they could before setting a deadline on repairing or tearing down the building.

“At some point we’re going to say now you’ve got 60 days to do something with this,” Fulford said. “We will then state it is unsafe for the neighborhood, and you’ve got to do something, either tear it down or start remodeling.”

The tenants at the building at the time of the fire included Abner’s Famous Chicken Tenders, Prissy Pots Boutique, East Bay Engraving, Village Style Shop, Tom Preer Jeweler, Village Square Trophy Shop and Zia.

East Bay Engraving has relocated to a shopping center north of the U.S. Post Office on Fairhope Avenue, but that is the only shop to do so thus far, according to the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce.

On Tuesday, before the city had condemned the building, Linda Baham, owner of Zia, a jewelry, art and gift store that had located at Village Square two years ago, was sifting through a mound of black ashes in a trailer on Fairhope Avenue next to the blackened front of the building.

“I’m prospecting for gold and jewelry from my shop,” Baham said, somberly, as she lifted up a palmful of ashes that came from her shop, letting them fall between her fingers. “We’ve found quite a lot actually.”

Baham said the fire has been a tough blow to endure, with some tenants having insurance and others not, but that local businesses such as Sandra’s Place and Panini Pete’s have been very supportive and helpful.

“My biggest loss was my art that I made, and that can’t be replaced,” she said. “But I’m going to start over. I’m also thinking of renaming my business Phoenix, rising from the ashes.”