Mounting refurbishment costs force developer to consider explosive options.
Implosion is on the table for what’s left of the Evansville Executive Inn. The city is talking with a couple of different demolition companies about bringing down the building if that’s the way the new hotel project heads.
Browning Investments was supposed to refurbish the remaining half of the old Executive Inn and turn it into a new hotel. But the company found fixing it up was too expensive and is giving the hotel back to the city.
Browning is recommending the old building be demolished and a new hotel altogether built.
Arena project manager John Kish said the city is looking at multiple options for bringing the Exec down.
“Just as when we demolished the first half of the Exec there is an idea of using a collapsing method – implosion – as well as traditional swinging the ball and knocking it over,” he said. The first half came down this winter using that traditional method. The major difference between now and then – the skeleton of the arena is now largely in place.
“When they took down the original tower, they had a 100-foot safety radius around it,” Kish said. “It was ten stories tall. This is eight stories tall, and the arena is about 90 feet away. So, we do think there’s any extraordinary risk involved.”
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