Abate. Demolish. Market. Repeat.

Photo by: Rick Danzl/The News-Gazette

Kelly Dillard, co-owner of Dig It of Champaign, talks on the phone in the front lobby of the Hanford Inn in Urbana. Dillard is preparing to demolish the building.

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URBANA Demolition of the old Hanford Inn & Suites in north Urbana is expected to begin this spring, said Kelly Dillard, whose company will take it down.

The project will be a bit of deja vu for Dillard, who last winter and spring tore down another abandoned hotel a one-time Holiday Inn in north Champaign that later became the Gateway Studios apartments.

In both cases, Dillard plans to market the properties for redevelopment. Both are located along the Interstate 74 corridor, with the Hanford just north of the Cunningham Avenue interchange and the Gateway on the south side of the Neil Street interchange.

At the Hanford site, Dillard's company, Dig It of Champaign, has already cut down weeds and trees. He plans to start demolition of the 140-room hotel in March or April.

"It's more costly to demolish things in wintertime," he explained. "It's harder on men and machines. Machines break down more, it takes longer for them to warm up, and metal is weaker in cold weather. It's generally 25 percent more expensive to do anything in winter than in the summer."

Plus, the Hanford will need asbestos abatement. Asbestos was used to strengthen paint sprayed on room ceilings, he said, and the paint will have to be scraped off and put into special dumpsters.

Total cost of demolition is expected to be about $400,000, with the city of Urbana slated to reimburse Dillard for $300,000 of that once the building is demolished and the lot is clean.

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Abate. Demolish. Market. Repeat.