(COMMERCIAL-NEWS | ROBERT TOMLINSON)
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
WHITE PIGEON — A landmark of White Pigeon history will begin to come down this week.
The Village of White Pigeon announced in a press release Friday that a portion of the southwest corner of the former Tasty Nut Shop building in the village at the corner of Kalamazoo Street and Chicago Road had partially collapsed, and that the rest of the building could collapse at any time.
“The determination has been made that the building is now in imminent danger of collapse and needs to be brought down immediately,” the release stated.
White Pigeon Zoning Administrator Doug Kuhlman told the Commercial-News Friday the demolition is expected to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 19.
On Friday, the Commercial-News observed a pile of bricks laying on the southwest corner of the building, which had ostensibly fallen from the building, with the bottom of the southwest corner sagging down and the rest of the corner looking much worse for wear than in weeks prior.
The partial collapse led to the closure of a portion of Kalamazoo Street around the building that afternoon, as well as shifting traffic down to one lane on the eastbound side of Chicago Road, away from the curb near the building.
The release stated the village will be working with the Michigan Department of Transportation and the State of Michigan Land Bank Authority and contractors to demolish the building to a point that “there is not a life safety risk,” and then proceed with the cleanup.
The impending demolition of the Civil War-era three-story building comes months ahead of what village officials had originally anticipated. Originally, a timeline submitted to the state in the village’s application for grant funds showed asbestos and lead paint abatement taking place in July with demolition beginning in September 2024 that would take a month to complete.
In late February, the village was awarded a $578,556 grant for the demolition of the building, which was condemned back in November of 2021, sparking a court case challenging a demolition order, an ownership change, and an attempt at restoration by Union Hall Block Building, Inc. (UHBBI) that was unsuccessful.
The release stated the village, along with UHBBI, would be working with the state’s Land Bank Authority to comply with the regulations set forth with the grant program in efforts to remove this hazardous building “without jeopardizing the grant funding.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@acnccrtest.c1.biz.