AK Office Complex Demo

If I had to put money on it, I’d say Kohler doesn’t want to want to bulldoze all of town.  He doesn’t strike me as having that type of thinking.  I understand he was very helpful and accommodating to the group that was trying to save the old library building.  At the same time, though, I do think he is a realist and acknowledges that adaptive re-use of some property would be difficult.

 Now Robinette, on the other hand, I understand, believes that (at least downtown anyway) Central Avenue cannot support retail from the railroad tracks to the river.  His philosophy, from what I’ve gathered, is that vacant storefronts hinder development/redevelopment.  Well that’s fine and dandy.  BUT, I am concerned about the city’s ability to maintain the land once the structures are gone.  Green space?  They can’t maintain the green space we have now.  Parking lots?  Drive around downtown and look at the condition of city-owned lots let alone the parking structure.  Parts of downtown already look like a bombed-out warzone. 

Manufacturing buildings on the other hand are tricky.  For example, parts of Sorg Paper date back to the 1850s.   An even older Middletown Paperboard has buildings as old as the 1820s.  These buildings may not be suitable for modern manufacturing activities.  Now there was a good example of reuse of a former tobacco building new Middletown PaperBoard.  Gary Recker renovated it into his wood-working shop, and it looked really nice.  Too bad it burnt down because it could have been the start of an artist colony/loft development.  And Midwest Service is demolishing old and dilapidated buildings to their operations can be modernized.  That is a positive example of redevelopment as well.

I give AK Steel some credit (even though I am still disappointed they relocated their HQ out of Middletown).  But, at least for this phase anyway, they are funding the demolition and clean up out of their pockets.  And because they own the land, they will maintain it like the good Corporate Citizen they have been for the most part.  I would hate to see the historic HQ building taken down.  But what is appropriate re-use of the building?   Could it be converted to senior housing?  Could another University locate a branch there?   Maybe one that isn’t so local?   Go ahead and bring down the 1960s addition, but it would be nice to save the older section.

I’ve heard rumors that an individual in town (not on Council or working for the city) has proposed a “Habitat Village” for this site.  And many may be surprised to learn who that individual “supposedly” is.  Because I have not heard it first-hand, I will not mention any names.  But before this could happen though the organization would have to acquire the property and likely go through re-zoning as it must likely is not zone for residential.   Vivian, I have no clue what property you are talking about behind AK.  The only vacant land is their parking lot, and what appears to be a small parking lot to the south of the former Con-Tech HQ building.  There just isn’t, from what I can tell, a large vacant parcel of land.

Yep Vet those were the days. My mother would send us down the street on our bikes to check if the big truck from Georgia was unloading those fresh watermelons at Middletown Ice & Coal. They would fill a big horse tank with ice and put the watermelons in and about an hour later they would be ice cold and wonderful!