Demolition begins on leaning Division Ave. buildings

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Demo crews were out Sunday to begin the process of knocking down two buildings on Division Ave. deemed structurally unsafe by city officials.

The buildings, 35 and 41 Division Ave. have been visibly leaning for quite some time forcing crews earlier in the year to place barricades around the sidewalk in the area out of fear falling bricks and other debris could injure people walkingpast the site.

You can see how its leaning, the foundation it bad and so theyve got no other choice other than to tear it down, said John McGill who was worried the space will now just become a vacant plot of land.

Sunday morning as crews began demolition, a small crowd gathered across the street to watch history fall to the ground.

It will clean up the neighborhood a tremendous bit, Barbara Kadrovach said. Itll be good to come down because a lot of homeless people go in there and hideout.

Rockford Development has been contracted for the demolition and city engineers say the plan is to have the project completed in time for the start of ArtPrize on Wednesday.

Its a demolition Bradley Hartwell says is a long-time coming of a building her refers to as the leaning towers of Grand Rapids.

Its been kind of a security hazard and a fall hazard so itll be good to be safe again, he said.Im excited to see what will happen next.

In July, the Grand Rapids Historical Preservation Committee approved demolition of the two buildings that have stood on the corner of Division Ave. and Weston for more than a century.

It is problematic and it has the potential to be more problematic,city engineer Mark De Clercq told FOX 17 in July.

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Demolition begins on leaning Division Ave. buildings