Duane Hicks
The demolition of the Rainy Lake Hotel is right on schedule.
After a weekend of rapid progress in the wrecking of the old building, work is on track to be mostly done by the end of the week.
The 200 block of Scott Street was closed to traffic Friday morning to facilitate the removal of the front portion of the building.
Over the weekend, JMX Contracting demolished the top two floors of the building, said Chief Building Official Travis Rob.
By Monday morning, all the contractor had to do was clean up the road and wash it down, re-opening it by 9:45 a.m.
“There is still the main floor and the basement of that left,” noted Rob.
“However, with that being closer to the ground, the threat of debris spilling onto the road is much, much less.
“Now they’re just working on cleaning up the debris from the top two floors,” Rob added.
“Once they’ve got enough space back there to work again, they’ll continue to work on the removal of the main floor.”
JMX Contracting always intended to be done the job by the end of October—and it looks like they’re well on their way to doing so, said Rob.
“There’s still some site servicing that has to be done,” he remarked.
“There will be some siding work that has to be done on the two adjacent buildings [Brockie’s and Causeway Insurance] where, of course, there once was a wall,” he added.
Rob said it’s the town’s responsibility to ensure those adjacent buildings’ walls are brought back to a “weather-tight finish.”
For example, on the Causeway Insurance side, the front wall is stucco while the other ones not facing the Rainy Lake Hotel have siding.
As such, siding will be put up on the wall facing the Rainy Lake to match the others.
“I’m not going to say by the end of the month, [JMX Contracting] will be done everything,” Rob admitted.
“But their intent, talking to them Monday morning, was to have the demolition portion, and a good portion of the clean-up part, done by the end of this week,” he said.
Rob noted the demolition has been moving very smoothly and JMX Contracting hasn’t experienced any surprises.
Even the weather has been optimal.
The Rainy Lake Hotel was built in 1928 and closed in 2005. It was put up for sale, failed to sell, and then went up for tax sale.
There were no bidders.
The town then vested the property (meaning it took ownership of it) in 2011.
Since then, the town tried to sell it or figure out a different usage for it.
But the property has deteriorated severely over the years, making demolition necessary.
The plan is to redevelop the property into the Rainy Lake Market Square next spring and summer.
While details will be determined over the winter with public consultation, it likely will include indoor and outdoor market space for vendors.
There also will be pull-through traffic parking for larger vehicles, such as tourists trailering boats/campers.
