Demolition planned for Toledo warehouse

Government agencies in Toledo, Ohio, and Lucas County, where that northwest Ohio city is located, are making plans to tap into local, state and federal funding to undertake demolition projects.

According to a late January online report by the Toledo Blade newspaper, one early target is a 75,000-square-foot warehouse in north Toledo where a dead body was found more than 10 years ago.

Funding for that demolition, according to the newspaper, will come in part from an earlier State of Ohio funding round to the Lucas County Land Bank.

That Toledo-based agency has for several years directed effort toward acquiring and demolishing abandoned buildings with an eye on land redevelopment.

Last November, the city of Toledo government announced it was submitting a grant application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) for a $500,000 Brownfield Community Wide Assessment grant.

If awarded, that grant will help the city update its local brownfield inventory, assess sites with hazardous substances and petroleum contamination, prepare risk assessments, and develop reuse plans at sites within two target areas in Toledo.  The EPA is scheduled to announce the awardees of those grants this May.

A press conference on the specifics of the north Toledo warehouse demo project has been scheduled for Monday, Jan. 31. At that conference, the Toledo Demolition Program is expected to announce it will be able to tap into $6 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for demolition purposes, according to the Blade.