An 8-foot high construction fence is starting to encircle the former data processing center. It’s near Hartford’s minor league ballpark, the first step toward a demolition that would make space for new development — including a potential, $90 million center for applied artificial intelligence. But passersby won’t notice walls tumbling down right away. Over the next two months or so, work will focus inside the 190,000-square-foot, bunker-like structure — vacant for nearly two decades and long the target of vandals and the object of thieves who stripped the concrete structure of anything of value. “What people will be able to see probably won’t start until April or May,” William Diaz, a project manager for the city’s department of development services, said. “Everything has to go down to the studs before they start taking the building down.” Diaz said metal structural beams, for instance, are sprayed with asbestos, which must be removed, and the lowest two underground floors are flooded. Leveling the now, city-owned data center is expected to cost $9.4 million, a combination of state and city funds, including a $6 million brownfields clean-up grant. The demolition is expected to wrap up by June 1, according to the city’s latest predictions.
Demolition of vacant and decaying CT building to start. It puts future development in spotlight.
