With a demolition contract secured, a fight to save the Lorden building in Rockford enters the 11th hour

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our mobile app

ROCKFORD — Architect Gary Anderson looks at the seven-story Lorden building along the Rock River and gets déjà vu.

The building at 320 S. Wyman St., which has its roots in Rockford’s knitting industry, has been a part of the city’s skyline for more than a century. But now it seems destined for the wrecking ball.

City Council members have unanimously approved a plan to demolish the site as part of an overhaul of Davis Park. Anderson and others, however, are pushing forward with a fight to save it. They’re working against a ticking clock as the city has already secured a contract to raze the structure.

Anderson said he’s seen this scenario before, when the city bought the former Ziock building in 2010 with plans to reduce it to rubble. Anderson and the Friends of Ziock fought to save that building, too. And four years later a plan was adopted to turn it into what it is today: the Embassy Suites by Hilton Rockford Riverfront hotel and conference center.

“We haven’t learned our lesson yet,” Anderson said of the city. “We never see the value and potential of buildings and what they can become.”

More in Davis Park: New public art display draws on Rockford’s industrial heritage

Now Anderson wants the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office to step in. He wants the agency to conduct a review under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. That law states that if a project will receive federal or state permits, licenses or funds it is subject to review of its effects on historic properties.

“It needs a proper hearing,” Anderson said. “We did the same thing with the Ziock, and look what the Ziock has turned into in terms of an economic driver for the hospitality industry and what it’s done for us downtown here.”

Demo already contracted

Anderson’s request for review is a last-ditch effort to save the building. City Council members have already unanimously OK’d a plan to demolish the site, and Mayor Tom McNamara has described the building as “an albatross” in the way of redevelopment.

Rockford news: $5.5M rebuild of Charles Street includes ‘much safer’ multiuse path

Last week, City Council members approved a $1.14 million contract with N-Trak of Loves Park to demolish the property. There’s no set date for when that demolition would begin. The city is expected to solidify that during a pre-construction meeting soon. It’s unclear how Anderson’s request may affect demolition.

Karl Franzen, the city’s director of community and economic development, said the city respects historic preservation but feels the best direction for Davis Park is the demolition of the building.

“The city did substantial due diligence in terms of trying to find an adaptive reuse for this property,” Franzen said. “We certainly wanted to save this from the beginning. It was only after not finding an adaptive reuse that we determined Davis Park plans were best suited for demolition.”

The city put out a request for proposals to redevelop the Lorden building and the only response it got was from Gorman & Co., the Wisconsin company that also led the redevelopment of the Ziock building.

Gorman, however, ultimately decided redeveloping the property would be too costly and now supports the demolition, City Administrator Todd Cagnoni previously said.

Anderson, however, said the city’s terms for redevelopment were too restrictive and it took too long to respond to Gorman to allow the project to feasibly move forward.

More redevelopment: Vacant downtown Rockford warehouses could be trendy new living spaces

What was the Lorden building?

The riverside building dates back to 1916, when BZB Knitting Co. outgrew its space in the Ziock building and secured the adjacent site for its seven-story stand-alone structure. The building was later turned over to Manikin Hosiery Co., which made women’s nylon hosiery.

In 1951, Manikin sold the property to Lorden Storage Co., “one of the largest and most modern warehouses for household furniture in the Rock River Valley area,” according to an April 1, 1951, article in the Rockford Morning Star, kept on file by the Rockford Public Library’s Local History Room.

The building would look much like the Ziock property, with loads of windows letting in natural light, if it wasn’t for a decision made after the Lorden Storage Co. took over, Anderson said.

More Davis Park: What’s wrong with the ‘F’ on the Rockford sign? Here’s what’s being done to fix it

In 1952 the Lorden company filled in the windows with brick for storage use. The two bottom floors were later changed into the open-air layout you see today.

“Everybody has kind of discounted the building as a piece of crap — it’s not,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot of significance there with our knitting district and certainly what the building can be.”

Anderson has recommended the building be placed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of a multi-property submission.

He thinks if demolition is delayed, there will be renewed interest from developers because of the eligibility for historic tax credits.

“The outcome of the Ziock is proof in the pudding that we were on the right side of that,” Anderson said. “I think we’ll be on the right side of the Lorden building as well.”

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