The village of Brookfield will begin a formal bid process seeking quotes for the demolition, rather than deconstruction, of the Theater Building at 3723 Grand Blvd. and a neighboring home at 3717 Grand Blvd.
Trustees directed staff to solicit bids for demolition at its Sept. 22 committee of the whole meeting in the first discussion about the historic property since April, when they reached a consensus to have the building taken down.
Brookfield has owned the Theater Building since last September and the adjacent house since January, though the residents did not fully vacate until July, according to a memo from the meeting.
In April, members of the board also asked staff to inquire with companies offering deconstruction, a process where structures are carefully taken apart to recover a maximum amount of reusable material.
The goal of either process would be to make the site “shovel-ready” so potential developers can begin to redevelop the parcels as soon as possible, said Libby Popovic, Brookfield’s director of community development.
“Ideally, that would have happened by now,” she said. “We ran into some financial constraints, so we had a little extra time to look into some of the other demolition options that the board also requested.”
At the meeting, Popovic presented trustees with four preliminary quotes she had obtained in July and August from firms to have the buildings taken down, two for demolition and two for deconstruction.
KLF Enterprises, a contractor based in Markham, quoted the village $155,000 to demolish both buildings — $105,000 for the Theater Building and $50,000 for the home — while saving one pallet of bricks, which Trustee Kit Ketchmark said was equal to about 400 bricks, and the Theater Building’s sign.
AG Coyle Concrete, based in Chicago, quoted $98,000 for the demolition while saving 800 to 1,000 bricks and the sign.
Recyclean Inc., a deconstruction firm based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, quoted Brookfield $141,000 for its work, though Brookfield would have to give up its right to the salvaged materials, which would have been sent to ReUse Depot, a nonprofit in Elmwood Park that sells reclaimed materials.
According to its Instagram account, ReUse Depot closed permanently on Aug. 3.
Rebuilding Exchange, based in Chicago and Evanston, quoted $98,000 to $125,000 to deconstruct just the Theater Building.
“They found that 3717 [Grand Blvd.] was not a property that they were looking to do the deconstruction, compared to some of the lumber that they could salvage at 3723,” Popovic said.
All of the quotes except for Rebuilding Exchange’s included the removal of the buildings’ foundations alongside the other work.
After reviewing the quotes, the village board agreed to have staff pursue demolition rather than deconstruction in a formal bidding process due to the lower cost to the village.
