The city of Bridgeport expects to begin demolition next month of the Warnoco building on the South End while pre-demolition remediation is expected to start at the former Health Department building on the East Side.
The projects are part of a $10 million city expenditure that focuses on the creation of affordable housing.
But the proposed demolition of the Cherry Street and Railroad Avenue buildings on the West Side has been halted by a court injunction. A status conference is set for mid-October, according to Bill Coleman, deputy director of the Office of Planning & Economic Development.
And the city is in the process of obtaining official authorization for the demotion of Ostermoor in the Hollow, he said, with an expected October or November start.
“Under the mayor’s anti-blight initiative,” said Coleman, “we have already taken down two additional blighted buildings: 88 Smith Street in partnership with Park City Communities, also known as the Bridgeport Housing Authority – which is slated for affordable housing); and 307 Center Street (a burned and blighted ruin next to the Ostermoor).
The city has received expressions of interest to redevelop these sites as affordable housing, but “with the exception of the Health Department building, the other properties are all in private hands,” he said.
“The exact path forward for the redevelopment of these privately owned sites is still to be determined. But the first order of business is remove the blight and the hazardous conditions.”
The work is part of the city’s ongoing effort to remove blighted buildings.
