Demolition begins on 100-year-old former GM plant

On April 16, demolition work began on the exterior of a 4.8-million-square-foot former General Motors (GM) plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, GazetteXatra reports.

According to the report, crews used backhoes and other demo equipment to begin tearing down the exterior walls of the facility. While this is the first demo work being done on the exterior of the building, teams have been working to remove asbestos and other materials from inside the facility for weeks.

Built in 1919, the Janesville plant was the oldest GM plant in operation at the time of its closing in 2009. When the automaker began ramping down production in 2008, more than 5,000 employees lost their jobs.

The site’s owner, St. Louis-based Commercial Development Company, bought the property from GM in 2017 for $9.6 million. According to the company, the demo could take up to 12 to 18 months to complete and cost upwards of $10 million. When cleared, the 265-acre site will allow industrial redevelopment across multiple parcels.