The demolition of the Damen Silos is underway and shifting rapidly.
Simply 5 days in, the smaller buildings surrounding the large constructions close to South Damen Avenue alongside the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal are already torn down and destruction of the silos has begun, in line with metropolis officers and proprietor Michael Tadin Jr.
The largest portion of the demo mission contains two units of 80-foot concrete silos and a tower that’s about 110 ft tall. The demolition will take months.
Tadin, who acquired the greater than 20 acres of land that embrace the silos in 2022, has not introduced what he plans to do with the location. Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration offered the property to Tadin for $6.5 million.
Regardless of proposals to protect the historic constructions, Tadin has mentioned the price of doing so isn’t sensible.
Metropolis inspectors are on website to verify the process is completed safely to guard close by residents and the atmosphere, a spokeswoman mentioned.
The demolition is taken into account by town to be “environmentally complicated” due to its measurement and potential for creating dangerous air pollution. The time period was created after the 2020 Crawford coal plant implosion debacle in Little Village. Chicago officers gave a personal developer, Hilco Redevelopment, the go-ahead to take down an nearly 400-foot smokestack via implosion. There will probably be no implosions allowed with the Damen Silos.
The grain silos, owned by the state for greater than 90 years, have been featured within the 2014 film “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”
McKinley Park Improvement Council circulated a petition in current weeks to make the Damen Silos a public park and competition grounds. Greater than 1,000 folks signed the petition, in line with Kate Eakin, the group’s managing director.
The group Preservation Chicago additionally advocated for turning the land into park area and a live performance space.
Blue Star Properties, which redeveloped the previous Morton Salt warehouse on North Elston Avenue and created the Salt Shed live performance venue, was among the many bidders in 2022. Blue Star was the bottom bidder, nevertheless, providing about $3 million lower than Tadin.
