Smokestacks and power plant being targeted for demolition on the Muskegon Lake Sappi site.
Back in January, the residents of Muskegon, Michigan were eagerly awaiting the implosion of the smokestack at the Sappi power plant. Six months later and the stack still stands defiant. But a final decision that could finally bring down the landmark stack could at last be imminent.
Owner Doug Melching is getting close to making a final decision on its demolition along with the huge power plant that sits next to the 85 metre (280-foot) stack. Despite recently listing the power plant for sale with a Spring Lake commercial real estate company for $5.5 million – part of an overall $17.5 million offering for the entire 120-acres on Muskegon Lake – Melching said he is close to deciding to take down the generating facility.
In a letter to The Muskegon Chronicle sent Thursday as Melching Inc. officials appeared before the Muskegon Planning Commission on a site plan review for a scrap metal processing operation, Melching indicated the former Sappi power plant would be removed as part of the ongoing demolition of the paper mill facilities.
The hope was that Melching would bring down a large portion of the Sappi plant but leave the power house, a 280,000 square-foot warehouse and the historic piano factory building immediately along Lakeshore Drive, the owner had said.
“We are currently contemplating complete removal of the power house and supporting structures,” Melching wrote the newspaper. “Removal of this use from the site, although a valuable asset, would provide greater flexibility in design for future uses that may be considered for the remainder of our site.”
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