Politics & Government

Update on Old City Hall Block

City Manager Tim Shearer reports on status of buildings slated to be demolished or improved in downtown Duluth.

The demolition of several downtown Duluth structures in the Old City Hall Block “is on track for this summer,” City Manager Tim Shearer reported to Duluth City Council members Monday (May 14).

Shearer gave a brief update on the status of the structures during his City Manager’s Report at the end of the council meeting. The Old City Hall Block is bound by Main Street, West Lawrenceville Street, Hill Street, and Abbotts Bridge Road (Ga. Hwy. 120).

“Notices to vacate have been issued to Boudreaux’s Cajun Market and The Boiler Room,” he said. The building containing these two businesses on Main Street is scheduled to be torn down to accommodate realignment of Ga. Hwy. 120 and to provide additional downtown parking. The café associated with the market relocated and reopened at Duluth Station shopping center recently and became Café Acadiana. The market had stayed behind.

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The city proposes to use Service Delivery Strategy settlement funds along with SPLOST monies earmarked for the Ga. Hwy. 120 realignment for the demolition.

The Boiler Room plans to relocate its retail store and workshop to a warehouse on West Lawrenceville Street, Shearer said. The warehouse formerly housed the Duluth Art Gallery and Wallace Reid Portraiture. It is being stabilized and the rear facade repaired.

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Also slated for demolition is a decaying building used by New Dawn Theater Company for prop storage and a workshop adjacent to Boudreaux’s and a rear covered alleyway that connected the theater to the storeroom. New Dawn held a flea market last weekend to sell furniture, props and other items stored there. The storage facility is in the worst condition of the buildings on the block, he said.

City staff and the theater are working on finding another location for New Dawn to store props and set up a workshop, possibly in the old city administration building on West Lawrenceville Street, Shearer said.

“The next phase,” he said, “will be rehab work on some of the remaining buildings,” he said. Tenants in these buildings on Main Street include New Dawn Theater, Accessorize Again, and fyi Duluth design studio.

A grease trap that the city hopes will attract future restaurants will be installed behind these buildings when the sewer line is replaced. The space now being used by Accessorize Again and fyi Duluth design studio could possibly accommodate three or four restaurants.

The city owns almost all the buildings on the block with the exception of the one containing Best of Brews. Privately owned, this building is located on the corner of Main Street and West Lawrenceville Street next to fyi Duluth design studio. Other tenants rent from the city with the understanding their leases can be terminated with 30 days notice.

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