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AK to demolish buildings on Curtis Street

As part of the demolition process, workers from CST Environmental use a small backhoe to place fence posts that will be used to support an erosion control and construction fence around one of the five buildings at the former AK Steel headquarters site in Middletown slated for demolition Wednesday Dec. 2.

Staff photo by Pat Auckerman As part of the demolition process, workers from CST Environmental use a small backhoe to place fence posts that will be used to support an erosion control and construction fence around one of the five buildings at the former AK Steel headquarters site in Middletown slated for demolition Wednesday Dec. 2.

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By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer Updated 10:55 AM Thursday, December 3, 2009

AK Steel Corp. will demolish five buildings near Curtis Street in Middletown and is mulling the future of its former headquarters building there.

The buildings, one on Forest Avenue and four on Curtis Street, have been vacant for different lengths of time. The former Armco International building has been empty for more than a decade and the building behind the former headquarters, which was once a parking garage, has been vacant for at least 20 years, said Alan McCoy, AK spokesman.

The company began preliminary work on the buildings, isolating utility lines, this week. McCoy said walls on the five buildings marked for demolition could begin coming down as soon as Monday, Dec. 7.

Three buildings will remain at the site: the former headquarters building, boiler room and research center, which still houses about 75 AK employees. The boiler room supplies electricity to the other two buildings, according to the company.

Demolition would be completed sometime around January, with grading and seeding of the area commencing a few months later, depending on the weather, McCoy said.

The local steelmaker said it felt this was the best option for the buildings.

“We tried for a long time to market these buildings, and we have really come to the conclusion there is not much hope of that being successful. So in our opinion, taking them down and grading and seeding is really the better thing to do to prevent blight and vandalism and all the bad things that happen to vacant buildings,” McCoy said.

AK is still hopeful it will find someone to utilize its headquarters “so we are going to give that a little more time,” McCoy said, adding the company is also considering designating it as a brownfield.

Through a partnership with the city of Middletown, it would then be possible to obtain Clean Ohio funds for redevelopment of the site, said City Manager Judy Gilleland.

“We need to have further discussions on the project and the possibility of the project before we pursue brownfield money,” she said.

Overall, Gilleland said demolition of the buildings — which the company has not released a dollar amount for — is “great news” for the city in terms of establishing green space.

“In general, one of the issues that we face as an older industrial community is that we have a lack of green space for new companies to come in or new residential development to take place,” Gilleland said. “Part of our mission in turning Middletown around is to eliminate some of the blighted buildings, vacant buildings and vacant homes.”

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Tear it down now and stop playing games. The longer
it takes, the more likely it won't happen. Time
to move on.

Eddie
10:43 PM, 12/3/2009

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good grief, the idiots come out in droves as usual. Private enterprise is what will dictate the future of this area, not the ridiculed "city leaders" many bash. The city can't tear down every building, evict all the poor people, or force industry to come here. Also, I doubt there's any "fat" to cut in at the city building. I won't waste breath on idiotic suggestions that they give massive paycuts to city manager, department heads, etc. They will just leave with no good substitutes.

Bill
7:13 PM, 12/3/2009

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Dear Middie Raised, Your city is not dying, it is going through the same changes that has happened to every city all over the world since time began. Archeologist find entire cities that were left behind or buried with time. Just pray that our city leaders, such as Armburster and others make their decisions based on what is right for Middletown and it's citizens and not other reasons. AK has moved on to greener grounds, with little chance they will return. Let them clean up their own mess.

DD
3:58 PM, 12/3/2009

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its hard watching my city die

middie raised
2:08 PM, 12/3/2009

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I grew up in Middletown and like many have seen many changes. Good & Bad. Nostalgia has it's cost & limits. We went through this with the city building. AK tried to give these building away to anyone, with no takers. Ak needs to demolish the office complex now as well, before the city inherits the problem. It is full of asbetos and other hazardous products. AK made their profits from these buildings, let them use the profits to remove them. Not tax funds that can be used for better purposes.

DD
1:12 PM, 12/3/2009

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