NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council approved the bonding of the demoltion project for the Atrium Hotel at their meeting Tuesday.
According to agenda documents, the City of Hutchinson will incur certain demolition expenses related to the demolition of an unsafe and dangerous structure, the Atrium, prior to closing on the bonds.
This project is different in that the city is not creating a capital asset, but instead removing one. Charter Ordinances allow the creation of capital assets. In order to bond this project, counsel advised the city to use Home Rule.
The Ordinance before the council approved the project and bonding costs up to $1,200,000. If the costs are less than that, the city does not have to bond the full amount.
The project costs include the bid awarded to Kansas Concrete LLC and an estimated contingency.
Even though this is a necessary next step, it doesn't really speed up the timeline of the potential reuse of the property much.
According to discussion at Tuesday's meeting, the earliest that any delinquency would happen as a result of the assessment being added to Joshua Joseph's property taxes if he doesn't pay any part of it is in 2026 and then it would take three years of such delinquency before it would go to a sheriff's sale.
The asbestos remediation is going on right now and once that is done the actual demolition will likely take one to three months, but then it will likely stay as a vacant lot for a few years, unless Mr. Joseph decides to pay what he then would owe and then get approval to build on it.