The owner of the historic Damen Silos on the West Facet moved a step nearer towards demolishing the previous grain storage buildings, although metropolis officers nonetheless should log off on the plan.
The U.S. Military Corps of Engineers gave the inexperienced gentle on Monday to Michael Tadin Jr., whose household enterprise acquired the property from Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration two years in the past. The Military Corps turned concerned with the method due to the silos’ location by the Chicago River.
Tadin can tear the buildings down so long as he installs historic markers memorializing the silos that embody salvaged supplies, in line with a memorandum of settlement introduced by the Military Corps. Tadin signed an settlement with the corps and Illinois Historic Preservation officers.
Preservationists sought to save the structures as a logo of metropolis’s historic ties to agricultural commodities. The silos and surrounding buildings have been unused for many years, although they made an look within the 2014 film “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”
Tadin, who purchased the 23-acre property for $6.5 million, stated Tuesday he nonetheless hasn’t determined what to do with the land. Tadin individually owns MAT Asphalt, 2055 W. Pershing Highway, in McKinley Park and has stated that he has no plans for one more asphalt plant.
Tadin nonetheless wants clearance from metropolis reviewers, together with these with the Division of Buildings and the Division of Public Well being.
Due to its dimension, the teardown is taken into account by the town to be an “environmentally complicated” demolition, a time period developed after the 2020 Crawford coal plant implosion debacle in Little Village. Chicago officers had given a non-public developer, Hilco Redevelopment, the go-ahead to take down an virtually 400-foot smokestack via implosion.
It’s unclear how lengthy the method will take or when demolition will start on the silos.
“Different permits are nonetheless excellent from the town earlier than demolition can proceed,” a metropolis spokeswoman stated. “Particular timing shouldn’t be but identified.”
