Terry Hilbert has been talking with City Administrator Kent Hager about revolving fund grants for businesses.
Hilbert said he is learning about financing in the new world order since the Wall Street debacle of recent years.
It’s not the same anymore,” says Hilbert. “Banks are really watching who they loan to, especially businesses.”
Hilbert is in the throws of demolishing the building to the west of his bowling alley. He’s been through the permits, city approval, asbestos removal and Department of Natural Resources approval.
He obtained the razing permit and has a crew hard at work, bringing the building down from the outside in. “We’re so close to the street traffic here that we put up a fence and have a man on the top, bringing down the building into the middle, then a ground crew is removing the debris from the inside of the building. It will take a long, long time, but that’s what we had to do.”
Hilbert said American Razing will recycle the brick, and many items were removed and sold as well.
All said and done, Hilbert has $100,000 into the project already. The building cost $67,000, and tearing it down will be an additional $23,500, plus permits and incidentals.
“I was surprised that no one asked about the building from a historical aspect,” said Hilbert. “But I could have told them it was in very bad shape. Then, once we started looking, the basement had three floors put into it, and the first floor did too. It would have been a nightmare to renovate.”
Hilbert’s plans are to build on the corner, away from the street, so that traffic has better visibility at the corner. “The city asked that we consider this, and that will be no problem,” said Hilbert. Plans are not firmed up on the new build yet, and Hilbert says it will be at least six months before they can move ahead with building anything.