Stonington - A long vacant and dilapidated building, considered by town officials to be critical to the revitalization of downtown Pawcatuck, has been sold to a California man with ties to the region.

According to a filing in Town Hall last week, Helene F. Blackall of Stonington sold the former Laura’s Landing building at 34 West Broad Street on Oct. 3 to Philip O. Becker of Glendale, Calif., for $360,000. The building is located along the south side of the street, just before the Pawcatuck River bridge.

For more than two decades, town officials had tried to get Blackall’s husband, Frederick, to rehabilitate the building or sell it without success. In 2011, it issued him a cease and desist order for running a junkyard in the building and on the property. Although Blackall cleaned up some of the debris, he did not make the repairs the town ordered him to make. The town, though, never proceeded with enforcing its cease and desist order and its fines of $100 a day. First Selectman Rob Simmons said the building does not meet the standards of the town’s current blight ordinance.

Neither Becker nor the realtor who handled the sale, Calvin Utter, could be reached for comment Tuesday.

But Simmons said that in his discussions with Utter, he learned that Becker grew up in Norwich and is familiar with downtown Pawcatuck because he passed through it many times on his way to the beach in Westerly. He said Becker saw the building was for sale when he passed by it this summer.

“He was excited the building was for sale and was excited about the good things that are happening in Pawcatuck village and Westerly,” Simmons said.

He said Becker intends to renovate the top floor of the three-story building and live there, renovate the second floor for residential use and use the bottom floor for commercial use, possibly a restaurant.

Simmons said town officials are looking forward to meeting Becker and helping him navigate the challenges associated with rehabilitating a building along the river.

Simmons said that over the past two years he and Selectman Mike Spellman, along with the Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce and the Westerly Town Council, have made a huge effort to make downtown Pawcatuck-Westerly more attractive to developers. He listed the recently completed Bricks and Murals project, the work of the town’s Beautification Committee, the creation of two new zoning districts designed to allow more uses and the installation of internet service for several downtown buildings that did not have it.

“We’ve made a major effort to bring something good to this part of town,” Simmons said. “I think the sale of this property symbolizes that our efforts are paying off.”

He said new apartments are renting downtown and there is interest in a vacant restaurant space. There remains a vacant blighted building at the corner of Mechanic Street and another next door that remains boarded up after a fire.

The former Campbell Grain building at the end of Coggswell Street is slowly being demolished, which will open up a large lot for development along the river.