2 vacant apartment buildings in Old West End meet wrecking ball

Collingwood Arms and Collingwood Manor apartments are in the process of being demolished. After decades of abandonment, two Depression-era apartment complexes in Toledo's Old West End began to crumble Tuesday as crews tore into the three-story brick-and-concrete buildings.

After decades of abandonment, two Depression-era apartment complexes in Toledo’s Old West End began to crumble today as demolition crews tore into the three-story brick-and-concrete buildings.

“This is demolition by neglect,” Toledo City Councilman Paula Hicks-Hudson said as heavy machinery began punching through and clawing apart the Collingwood Arms and Collingwood Manor apartments.

The buildings, at 2127 and 2131 Collingwood Blvd., were built in the early 1930s by developers anticipating a population boom in Toledo and the Old West End neighborhood. But the twin U-shaped buildings have been vacant for at least a dozen years and had deteriorated to the point they could not be saved, neighbors said.

The Lucas County Land Bank seized the property from the buildings’ owners, who could not afford the upkeep and were more than $250,000 behind on property taxes, according to Wade Kapszukiewicz, Lucas County treasurer and Land Bank chairman.

Demolishing the structures will help stop the downward spiral of property values in the historic neighborhood, Mr. Kapszukiewicz said.