A crew from Harbo Emergency Services and Restoration brought down the burned-out Heritage Building on Main Street several weeks ago in a cloud of dust and glass and splinters, carted away most of the junk, threw up a fence around the lot, then took their big machines and went away.
Leaving behind a whole lotta rubble.
Since then, it would appear to the casual observer, a whole lotta nothing’s been going on.
On Monday, Jeff Tate, director of community development for the City of Auburn, said an apparent misunderstanding between the owner and contractor may be at least partially responsible for what will have turned out to be merely a temporary lull in activity.
“There’s never been a misunderstanding from the City, but I think some questions have come up between the owner and the contractor as to what the scope of that work is. We’ve been clear from the beginning what the scope of the work is, and what the final outcome needs to be,” Tate said.
That is, Tate said, the site must be stabilized, secured, made safe, and all of the detritus that is left in the foundation has to go.
“It needs to be in a condition that’s not blight,” Tate said.
Away from the eye, Tate said, things are moving,
Last week, property owner Melina Lin completed a structural engineering evaluation of the parcel to determine what lies underneath. That report will look at the foundation walls, whether they extend underneath sidewalks, what they support, how they relate to nearby parking, where the utilities are, all to ensure that nothing that’s to be removed compromises the integrity of any adjacent structures.
Lin was to submit that evaluation to the city this week for a review. With that review in hand, the city and Lin will formulate a plan for the next phase of activity.
“We do know this – the rubble’s coming out. But we’re not sure if we want the lot to be fully graveled or hydro-seeded. You know, it may be two or three years before we see something new come out of the ground again there, so during that period of time, we want it to be not only as safe as possible but also as attractive as possible,” Tate said.
One complication: unlike some of the newer buildings going up, the old Heritage Building was constructed from lot line to lot line, with no space to spare.
City officials say all the work must be done by the end of October.
“But when we see what they have to propose this week, and what actions are necessary to finish it out, we could grant an extension to that, but right now, that’s the deadline,” Tate said. “With an old building like that, there are a lot of unknowns, so we are trying to be as flexible as possible to allow informed decisions to be made along the way. We also can’t give up halfway through and call it good.”
Lin has listed the property for sale.
On Dec. 26, 2017, fire broke out in the building’s laundry room.
By the time the Valley Regional Fire Authority and other fire agencies called in to help extinguished the fire, the second floor of the historic building was destroyed, and its occupants and all of the ground-floor businesses were homeless. All occupants and many of the businesses that had been in the building have since found new digs elsewhere.
