MANSFIELD — The city’s east skyline looked far different Wednesday morning.
And far better.
The final walls of the former Westinghouse “A” building at 200 E. Fifth St. — a hulking five-story, decaying structure that has sat largely vacant for three decades — came down on Tuesday.
R&D Excavation of Crestline began the building demolition process less than two months ago, an effort led by the Richland County Land Bank that could lead to redevelopment of the site.
It’s part of a $4 million demolition and clean up of a site that included a nearby vacant building and a 13-acre “concrete jungle” just to the east of the the former “A” building.
R&D Excavation co-owner David Barnhart said he thinks it will take his crews and equipment a couple more months to clear the entire site, which is now owned by the Land Bank.
Richland County Commissioner Tony Vero, a Land Band board member who helped launch the effort in August 2021, said Wednesday local officials are excited to see the walls come down “without any major obstacles.”
“Now we’re in conversations with other public partners to get grant money to move onto the next phase, which is to develop the site,” Vero said.
The commissioner said nothing has been found on the site yet that would prevent future redevelopment, adding the site is not completely cleaned up and fully tested.
“We haven’t found anything yet that would indicate we can’t develop most, if not all, of the site,” he said.
“Until it’s all cleaned up, we won’t know for sure. But we are comfortable enough in conversations t seek grant money to assist with redevelopment of the site,” Vero said.
“So far, so good.”
It’s possible a public/private partnership may be formed to work on potential redevelopment ideas, Vero said.
“EPA grant money would really help us because they will actually provide funding to pay for a study on how the site could best be developed,” Vero said. “What would be appropriate uses for the site?”
The next phase will likely be a topic when the Land Bank executive committee meets next week.
Richland County Treasurer Bart Hamilton, chair of the Land Bank board, said in December as demolition began that the Ohio EPA could be a big factor in that next phase.
“They will come in and, and look the site over with us, with professionals. They will look at it from a marketing standpoint of what can we sell this for? What can we do with it? And they will help us put together a plan for that,” Hamilton said.
