JOHNSTOWN – The Fulton County Demolition Team this week began work at the 515-acre Tryon Technology Park to take down six former state youth detention facility buildings.
The demolition is being done to create shovel-ready space for companies that may want to move to the new business park, officials said.
The park, off County Highway 107, currently has one tenant – medical marijuana manufacturer Vireo Health of New York.
“The first building was demolished and they’re hauling it away,” county Planning Director James Mraz said today.
Construction and demolition debris is being hauled to the county landfill, and the county is paying for the job, he said.
Demolition team members started demolishing the former Tryon buildings Tuesday morning. Mraz said the first one is down.
Fulton County is working with the Fulton County Industrial Development Agency, which owns the park, to tansform it into a technology park.
The demolition team is run out of the county Department of Solid Waste. Department Director Cliff Engle said Tuesday the unit will continue to work until all six buildings are down. The buildings being taken down are former cottages and administrative facilities.
Mraz, IDA executive director, said the demolition team is taking down three large buildings and three small ones at Tryon.
“Tearing these buildings down basically makes the site shovel-ready,” Mraz said.
Eventually, he said, the Empire State Development Corp. will provide the IDA with a certificate to say the area the demolition team is working on is ready. The information will go into a state database.
“It’s just a special recognition,” Mraz said.
He said receipt of the certificate may take months. Meanwhile, the IDA and county will market the targeted section immediately after the buildings are demolished and cleared.
Mraz said another new development at the park this week was the front entrance sign was lit for nighttime use by a solar-powered system.
The state in September 2012 approved transfer of the former Tryon Detention Facility property to the IDA for redevelopment as a business park. Mraz and IDA officials at the time said they wanted to turn the site – stretching across the towns of Perth and Johnstown – into a place to attract new investment and create hundreds of new jobs in Fulton County.
Michael Anich covers Johnstown and Fulton County news. He can be reached at [email protected].
