For months, a thin strip of canvas on the fence around what remains of the Heritage Building in downtown Auburn post-demolition shielded the lot from curious eyes.

But that’s gone now, eyeballs can see in, and it’s not a pretty sight: chunks of broken concrete and raw building detritus of every sort litter the lot.

That mess is the byproduct of a misunderstanding between what the site’s owner, Melina Lin, insisted the demolition contract said, and how the demolition contractor, Harbro Emergency Services, read what she expected it to do.

But the lot will not remain a mess for too much longer.

“It’s frustratingly slow for everybody. They’re transitioning out of the demolition contractor who took the building down, and she’s hiring a new contractor to do the rest of the cleanup,” Jeff Tate, director of community development for the City of Auburn, said Friday.

Tate expressed frustration at the City’s not being able to see the scope of work, which is a matter between the demolition contractor and the private property owner, though, he said, the City did let Lin know what had to be done, Tate said.

On Dec. 26, 2017, fire broke out in the building’s laundry room. By the time the Valley Regional Fire Authority and other local fire agencies called in to help had extinguished the fire, the second floor of the historic building was gutted, and its occupants and all of the ground-floor businesses were homeless.

The occupants have since found new housing, and some of the businesses, like Top Nails, have set up shop elsewhere.