A nearly 100-year-old structure in Fort Collins will soon be gone because it poses a “significant safety risk.”
The Old Poudre Valley Creamery building at 222 Laporte Ave. will be taken down later this month. The city will open a formal bid for services today, with officials saying the cost of deconstructing the building will be $135,000.
The city, in a statement Friday morning, called it a deconstruction rather than a demolition because the city will clean and store 20,000 to 50,000 bricks for future use. Salvageable wood will be ground up and recycled, while mulch and metals such as iron and copper will be recycled.
Concrete, asphalt and damaged bricks will be taken to the city’s crushing facility to be used in road base, the city said.
Constructed in 1912, the building originally served as general cold storage. But during World War II, the plant became increasingly dependent on the sale of dairy products. So the name of the building changed to Dairy Gold Foods, and eventually to Poudre Valley Creamery, which operated until 2001.
The city said the building was eligible for historic designation when Fort Collins bought the property in December 2001, but a request for designation was not pursued because of the condition of the structure.
There are a number of historical artifacts in the building that will be preserved.
Once the building is taken down, the city will landscape the site and maintain it in conjunction with other downtown property, the city said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
