Ogdensburg seeking demolition funds for former cheese plant | St. Lawrence County

OGDENSBURG — Ogdensburg City Council voted Monday to apply for grant funding that would demolish and redevelop the former plant at 30 Main St.

The resolution authorized Interim City Manager Andrea L. Smith to submit an application for up to $2 million through the Round 7 Restore NY Communities Initiative to demolish and redevelop the plant. This project was initially supposed to be on the round 6 application but was taken off in September and substituted with the redevelopment of the former Hackett’s building by Rob Noble.

The plant was operated by TooBro Company when it closed in 2011. It’s now owned by the city of Ogdensburg. According to the resolution, the entire facility is vacant, portions of the facility have collapsed, and others have been partially demolished due to a fire this past June.

“We don’t believe any of the buildings are salvageable,” said Ms. Smith. “We have had a couple of engineering studies done, there’s significant deterioration due to leaking roofs, fires, and as well as contamination from asbestos.”

The two-story, 63,237-square-foot manufacturing building is composed of eight parcels and also contains 4,988 square feet of high bay cooler space and 5,060 square feet of lab and office space.

Following a fire in June, the council had been seeking options for demolition and was accepting bids in July with hopes demolition would be completed in late August.

“The bid that we did do, the contractor admittedly did not have a full understanding that there were basements in some instances,” said Ms. Smith. “The bid came back grossly under what it would have cost the city so the project was put on hold at that time.”

Ms. Smith ensured the council that staff had done additional work to design a more detailed demolition project for this application.

Mayor Jeffery M. Skelly showed support for the resolution, stating it would be a big boost for the marina district.

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