Emergency Demolition Order Issued For Former Lufkin Building

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An emergency demolition order has been issued for the former Lufkin Building located at 673 Caron Avenue.

The building was originally set for demolition in February of 2017, but at the request of the Planning Heritage and Economic Development Standing Committee, demolition was deferred to allow additional time for prospective investors to come forward with redevelopment proposals.

According to John Revell Chief Building Official for the City of Windsor over the deferral period, there have been numerous entries of the property by trespassers who frequented the building at night.

Most recently, the city says that on November 28th, 2017 police were called to the building to remove an occupant found sleeping inside.

On November 29th the building was inspected by a structural engineer and the inspection revealed that the building’s continued deterioration presented a dangerous situation.

The Planning Heritage and Economic Development Standing Committee was notified of the danger at their December 11th meeting. The committee deferred demolition approval.

Instructions were given that no occupants were to enter the building, including first responders, and that additional security measures were to be taken.

At that time, the City instituted hourly patrols conducted by security personnel to ensure the building remained unoccupied.

On December 16th they city says they received a report from security of concerns regarding the rear wall of the building, and a professional engineer was once again retained to review the conditions on Monday, December 18th.

That investigation revealed that the rear wall of the structure was in significant failure and the building was deemed at risk of imminent
collapse and a emergency demolition order was issued.

Demolition of the building is expected to start the first or second week of January. In the interim, no occupants will be permitted to enter or be within proximity of the rear wall that is collapsing. Security patrols will continue and inspections of all secured openings will be ongoing.

Thermal imaging will be used to verify there are no occupants prior to demolition and specialized methods of demolition will be employed as abatement of contaminated material is no longer possible.