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Bought at a city delinquent tax sale over the summer, the new owner of the building at the southwest corner of Goodfellow Boulevard and West Florissant Avenue said he’d be happy to sell it to someone to rehab it, but the only proposal he received for the property was from someone who wants to tear it down for a restaurant.

“It seems like the market has had ample opportunity if someone wanted to rehab this building,� said owner Robert Vroman, whose business specializes in buying unwanted structures at city tax auctions.

But the city’s Cultural Resources Office Director, Dan Krasnoff, denied a demolition permit request for the structure, which sits within a St. Louis Preservation Review District. The at 1520 Market Street.

“West Florissant is a commercial corridor without much consistency in its urban design,� the city’s Cultural Resources Office wrote in its report on the demolition request. “The proposed demolition would mean the loss of the largest and most elegantly designed structure on the corridor. The substantial rehabilitation of this property would add to the quality and character of the area.�

But Vroman, who describes himself as more of “a salvage company� than a developer, said that would be a tall order. A fire some years ago ruined the roof, and the basement has had standing water for years.

“It would be a massive project,� he said. “I couldn’t say if it’s actually doable. It’s not my industry.�

Even the city notes that a rehab would be daunting, particularly because of the location. The building was structurally condemned in December, according to the report.

“The rehabilitation of such structures in the Walnut Park area is a greater challenge, due to lower property values than are found in other parts of the City,� the city report says.

Still, the The Landmarks Association of St. Louis is trying to drum up opposition, encouraging people, including concert venue owner Joe Edwards, to submit testimony about its significance to local music history.

“With the loss of the Castle Ballroom on Olive a few years ago and the uncertain future of the Chuck Berry House and the Palladium, we can’t afford to lose any more of these kinds of sites,� Andrew Weil, executive director of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, said in an e-mail.

The building at 6306 West Florissant Avenue first opened as a dance hall and entertainment complex called Imperial Hall in the late 1920s.

But it became famous after George Edick opened the club in 1952, offering Big Band music and performances by Stan Kenton and Louis Prima. He also gave Chuck Berry some of his first local gigs.

It was there where a jitterbug variation that became known as the St. Louis Imperial was born. Several dance clubs that exist today in the St. Louis area descended from the St. Louis Imperial Dance Club, which was founded in 1973.

Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm played on Tuesday nights. After meeting Annie Mae Bullock — who would become known as Tina Turner — at an East St. Louis nightclub in 1956, the duo frequently performed there.

After they became stars in the late ’60s, the Turners returned to play at the club and recorded some songs there from the album “Ike and Tina Turner Revue Live.�

Bob Kuban and the In-Men often played there, and Edick hosted a television show called “Party Time,� which was broadcast on KPLR (Channel 11) in the early ’60s. Edick died in 2002.

More recently, only a couple of small tenants — including a still-operating tattoo parlor — occupied the ground floor. Vroman said the concert and dance hall space had been damaged and abandoned for years. He said that it went through a past tax auction and that he bid only the minimum for it this time because he buys only things that “no one else wants.�

The community let the building deteriorate for years, Vroman said, with little outcry.

“There’s been no effort to do anything with this until now,� he said.