Detroit stadium earmarked for demolition.
The Pontiac Silverdome will be demolished under an agreement reached between the city and the stadium’s ownership group.
If it comes to fruition, it would mark the next major step in finding a new use for the 127.5-acre site that used to host tens of thousands of Detroit Lions fans when the team played there until moving to Ford Field downtown in 2002. One of the venues for the 1994 World Cup and the first indoor stadium to host a World Cup tie, the stadium has been filmed and photographed strewn with debris and is generally considered an eyesore in the city of 60,000 people.
A specific demolition timeframe has not been established, but Mayor Deirdre Waterman says that the consent agreement reached requires that the Toronto-based owners Triple Properties Inc. retain a demolition contractor by May 12 and present a scope of work to the city by June 9.
“They have several options on how they take it down,” she said. “Implosion is probably one of the chosen ways.”
“We are hoping that by having this kind of settlement agreement that the process for the demolition of the Silverdome property will be as least injurious as possible, but also that it will pave the way for the best economic use and redevelopment. It was an iconic structure during the heydays.”
Last month, the city sued Toronto-based Triple Properties Inc., which purchased the Silverdome at auction from the city in 2009 for $583,000, just 1.05 percent of the total 1975 construction cost of $55.7 million. The city alleges violations of building and safety codes, as well as illegal storage of vehicles.
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