Demolition begins on vacant Clarion Hotel in South Toledo

The demolition is scheduled to take 12 weeks and is being carried out by Carleton, Michigan-based Homrich company, who won the contract with a $434,000 bid.

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins held a news conference today to mark the first day of demolition of the vacant Clarion Hotel in South Toledo.

“This has been a long time coming,” Mayor Collins said. The building at at 2340 S. Reynolds Rd. has stood empty since 2009 when the previous owners, Florida-based Toledo Hotel Investment Group LLC, defaulted on $2 million in loans. The hotel has been described as a public safety hazard and has been broken into, vandalized, lived in illegally, and caught fire last month. The city is the current property owner.

PHOTO GALLERY: Click here for more photos from today‘‍s press conference

The demolition is scheduled to take 12 weeks and is being carried out by Carleton, Michigan-based Homrich company, who won the contract with a $434,000 bid.

Crews tore out a few trees from in front of the hotel at the ceremony today; demolition on the exterior of the building itself cannot be carried out until asbestos abatement has been performed on the interior.

Mayor Collins called the demolition the beginning of a “blight free” Council District 2.

The city council has set aside $350,000 from the capital improvements fund and obtained a $200,000 Brownfields grant from the U.S. EPA to pay for the demolition.