CAPTION: The Atrium Hotel and Conference Center, located at 1400 N Lorraine St. CREDIT CITY OF HUTCHINSON
By Emmie Boese
Director of Community Development Matthew Williams gave The Hutchinson Tribune an overview of the demolition and asbestos abatement process for The Atrium Hotel and Convention Center.
Williams said the project is moving along quicker than initially expected.
“We are kind of just working off of a tentative schedule,” Williams said. “Right now they are in the middle of asbestos removal. That’s expected to finish by the end of the year and then once that is done, then demolition will begin and demolition is expected to be done I believe by March.”
Kansas Concrete LLC of Nickerson is responsible for the demolition of the property after being selected by the city in the bidding process. The total bid was $865,000. Williams said Kansas Concrete sub-contracted with another company for asbestos abatement.
“I think the total bid price ended up coming in less than we had budgeted for and we were happy with kind of a lower price,” Williams said.
The Hutchinson City Council condemned the Atrium due to unsafe and hazardous measures on Aug. 20 and gave property owner Joshua Joseph 30 days to provide a cash bond of 2 million dollars or remedy all issues within the property. Council declined Joseph an extension to provide a cash bond.
Bids for demolition and asbestos abatement were sent out on Aug. 27. On Oct. 1, council voted to demolish the Atrium. Council then voted to approve Kansas Concrete as the general contractor for the demolition at a special city council meeting on Oct. 8.
Williams said the city moved forward with demolition of the property themselves due to poor lack of planning on Joseph’s part to repair or tear down the property himself.
“So we obviously have to pay the demolishing crew how much money they are owed right now so we took a bond out to pay for that and this is how normal abatement for nuscinces work is we pay to have it done,” Williams said. “Maybe we pay to have a car towed off of a property or to have a car boarded up and then we basically assess that amount that it cost to the property taxes and so for the commercial property, we are assessing it to his property taxes. He can pay his property taxes. He can pay you know the large amount that is costing to do the demolish you know to demote a property and if he pays that he gets to keep the property you know just like if you were to pay your taxes. But if he doesn’t pay his property taxes, after three years of not paying it, then it would go to the (Reno County) tax sale.”
Williams said the property taxes alone are going to be a huge tax bill.
“He was unwilling to you know fix the issue now so we kind of have an assumption that he may not pay the taxes on it and if it does go to the tax sale, then basically I think the tax sale is once a year over at Memorial Hall, but basically it goes to the tax sale and any individual can bid on the property and then whatever they bid on the property would be used to pay off the taxes,” Williams said
Williams said the city does not own the property throughout this process. On Nov. 5, the council approved an ordinance authorizing general obligation bonds for the demolition. The city is allowed to bond up to $1.2 million for the demolition.
The Atrium is located at 1400 N Lorraine St.
