Buildings used by former roofing materials manufacturer to be
gone within eight months
Demolition of the former GAF Leatherback property on McCray
Street and Prospect Avenue will begin soon and is scheduled to be
complete within eight months, according to city officials.
The site of the former roofing material manufacturing plant,
located on seven acres, was purchased by the Hollister
Redevelopment Agency for $4 million in the hopes of developing it
for mixed uses
– including commercial and residential construction.
Buildings used by former roofing materials manufacturer to be gone within eight months
Demolition of the former GAF Leatherback property on McCray Street and Prospect Avenue will begin soon and is scheduled to be complete within eight months, according to city officials.
The site of the former roofing material manufacturing plant, located on seven acres, was purchased by the Hollister Redevelopment Agency for $4 million in the hopes of developing it for mixed uses – including commercial and residential construction.
The area has been vacant since Leatherback closed in 2007.
“I’d say within the next month you’ll see something going on down there,” said William Avera, Hollister’s development services director. “I’m guessing you won’t see a lot of real demo going on for a while because they’ll be doing the salvage first – taking out the machinery and equipment from the buildings first.”
The Hollister City Council in July accepted a $234,000 bid from Pantano Demolition, of Manteca, to remove the dilapidated structures and equipment from the site and leave the site ready for re-use. The 10 bids received by the city included a high bid of $1.26 million by a firm out of Mountain View.
“We were expecting a pretty good range,” said Avera, noting that the low-bidding contractor has eight months to complete the project. “It’s about right; not a whole lot different per square foot than the demolition of Fremont School [to make room for a new county courthouse on Fourth Street].
Pantano’s bid was as low as it was, Avera believes, because the company expects to make money on the salvaging and recycling of the equipment and other materials that remain on the vacant Leatherback property.
“Even though they are large buildings, there’s not much to them,” Avera said, indicating that the demolition of the buildings shouldn’t be too lengthy of a process. The city has budgeted close to $100,000 for the removal of asbestos and lead-based paint as well as to address any other environmental concerns that may arise during the demolition.
The environmental monitoring firm “will be on site when they need to be on site,” said Avera, adding they’ll be on hand “any time there’s removal of something and we want to do testing on it to make sure when we turn the property over to a new owner or developer it will be clean.”
Once the demolition begins and after it is complete, Avera said a six-foot cyclone fence will enclose the property so that no one trespasses on it or uses it for a dump site.
The only interested party to publicly express a desire to use a portion of the former Leatherback site so far is the San Benito County YMCA, representatives of which have entered into talks with city officials about utilizing the southern three acres of the site for a new facility.
However, Avera said, “We do have one little deal working right now, but I can’t talk about it other than to say it would be a huge benefit to the city.”
Asked when he believes the property will be redeveloped, he said, “Once the general economy picks up. We don’t expect things to turn around here for another year.”
