A dilapidated former hotel on Galesburg’s public square will start to come down floor by floor in early April.
In February, the Galesburg City Council approved a bid of of $406,470.23 to demolish the former Broadview Inn & Suites and accompanying restaurant. JIMAX Demolition Corporation of Peoria will take down the structures by mechanical means, rather than using explosives or a wrecking ball.
JIMAX President James Kosner tells WGIL an ultra high-reach excavator will be used to demolish the nearly 70-feet tall, 7-story hotel portion of the property. The Caterpillar 352 custom demolition excavator has a ground to peak reach of 90 feet.
“That machine will be sitting on the ground and really working and picking apart the building floor by floor, room by room — kind of like you would with your hands and fingers,” Kosner said.
“It’s really a cool machine specialized for these taller projects. Rarely do you see them on job sites around here, because again, you don’t see many 7-story plus buildings coming down.”
Kosner said environmental remediations of the property are complete — meaning all asbestos and lead have been removed from the structure.
Utility terminations of sewer, water, electric and gas lines are being completed this week and a security fence surrounding the perimeter of the property is expected to be installed today.
Demolition of the attached former restaurant will get under way around April 1. The ultra high-reach excavator arrive in the middle of April to start the hotel portion of the demolition.
Director of Community Development Steve Gugliotta anticipates demolition being substantially complete near the end of July, but Kosner said it could be finished by June.
“We shot for an early July completion to err on the side of weather and other unforeseen circumstances, but with the way things are going so far, I definitely think we’ll ahead of schedule,” Kosner said. “Hopefully we’ll have grass growing by early June.”
None of the contents — including furniture and beds — will be removed ahead of demolition.
“With the fatigue and current condition of the building, it’s really not a feasible option to be putting manual hand labor in there to be clearing out the contents,” Kosner said. “We made the determination that it would be a safer option to do the sorting as we’re demolishing.”
Kosner said concrete and metal from the property will be recycled and reused.
The hotel originally opened as a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge on May 1, 1978. The Broadview Inn & Suites closed in the Spring of 2020.
Gugliotta said, “This is one of the larger demolitions, in terms of structure height, that I can think of in my time here.”