Industrial building on Broadway, 8 residential properties in Rockford to be razed

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A crumbling former industrial site at Broadway and 13th Street will be torn down as the city tries to curtail blight and eliminate a potential safety hazard.

The front portion of the long vacant building at 1800 Broadway was previously demolished in November after the city issued an emergency order. The site has several floor and roof collapses, damaged interior components and its exterior brick wall was in danger of collapsing onto the sidewalk or roadway, building code official Nelson Sjostrom wrote in the emergency order.

Now, the rest of the building will come down. The City Council on Monday OK’d a $309,174 contract with Loves Park-based N-Trak Group to demolish the building. The cost is paid from federal Community Development Block Grants.

“We were certainly concerned, especially with winter coming on and the potential of heavy snowfall, of it falling in and creating a public hazard either on the sidewalk or in Broadway itself,” said Karl Franzen, the city’s director of community and economic development. “So it certainly became imperative that we addressed it.”

Related: $2.9M rehab project aims to bring new use to old Rockford Products site

The property fell into tax delinquent status under previous ownership and is now publicly owned by the Winnebago County trustee.

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Razing the building could also help the city in its efforts to attract new business to the area, Franzen said.

City officials have been working to bring new activity to the former Guerilla Graphix property to the east of the structure.

“Obviously, having a building like this with blight is a barrier to successfully marketing that building,” Franzen said. “Having it gone helps us in those efforts, but it also helps remove the liability to the taxpayers since it’s publicly owned.”

Residential demolitions

City Council also approved an $82,615 contract with N-Trak Group to demolish eight residential properties.

They are: 1014 N. Winnebago Street, 1019 S. Court St., 2915 W. State St., 2624 S. Fifth St., 1621 Green St., 3018 10th St., 3518 Gilbert Ave., and 728 Bruce St.

“We have over the last number of years been aggressive in taking down residential blight that can’t be rehabbed,” Franzen said.

The city has razed as many as 100 properties in past years. Last year it tore down just over 60 residential buildings and expects to handle roughly 50 to 70 this year, Franzen said. Part of the reason the number is falling is because the hot housing market has created more interest in rehabbing buildings that can be saved.

“We’re seeing increased interest and viability in rehab on some of these properties that are kind of on the border, which is fantastic,” he said. “We would much rather see a property rehabbed, and keep that assessed value, than demolished.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.