Rock Falls council OKs contract to demolish Micro Industries buildings

ROCK FALLS – The former Micro Industries buildings won’t be standing much longer.

The Rock Falls City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to accept a $799,700 bid from McDonagh Demolition of Chicago to demolish the buildings at 200 W. Second St.

“We’re going to put a parking lot on a piece of that land – not a huge parking lot or anything – and then the rest will be available for development,” City Administrator Robbin Blackert said. “We’ll have landscaping and that kind of thing, but we’ll leave quite a bit of space open for development.”

City officials and McDonagh Demolition representatives are set to meet next week to discuss the logistics and timing of the demolition, Blackert said. Removing the buildings is expected to take 60 days, based on McDonagh Demolition’s bid, she said.

They have not yet set a start date for the project, Blackert said.

The cost of the demolition is covered by a $2.2 million Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grant the city received in 2022, which was part of $106 million in capital grants awarded through the Rebuild Illinois Downtowns and Main Streets Capital Program. The program supports local commercial corridors, with concentrations of businesses hurt by the pandemic.

So far, the grant has paid for several costs related to the end goal of redeveloping the Micro Industries site, including the purchase of an adjacent vacant lot, consultants and asbestos removal.

On Dec. 5, 2023, the Rock Falls City Council unanimously OK’d buying a 0.23-acre lot from the Jane H. Hampton Trust for $30,000. The vacant lot is in the same block as the Micro Industries buildings, along West First Street between Second and Fourth avenues.

The plan is to include it in the redevelopment, Blackert said.

On Dec. 19, 2023, the City Council contracted with Terracon Consultants of Glendale Heights for asbestos abatement consulting services at a cost not to exceed $98,640.

According to Terracon’s proposal, the company was responsible for preparing an asbestos abatement scope-of-work package, assisting in bidding out the project and selecting the contractor, overseeing the abatement process, and completing an abatement close-out report.

The contract for asbestos abatement went to Husar Abatement of Franklin Park at the March 19 City Council meeting. The contract was for $188,000, which Blackert said was more than $400,000 less than the engineer’s estimate for asbestos removal.

The grant funds also can be put toward construction of the parking lot on a portion of the site and “creation of marketable land for economic development within the downtown,” according to DCEO’s grant tracker.

McDonagh Demolition was the second lowest of eight bidders on the project but was the lowest bidder to meet a key requirement called for by the DCEO, Blackert said.

“Since we have a DCEO grant, you have to hit a percentage of BEP [vendors], which is Business Enterprise Program, which includes minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses and disabled-owned businesses,” she said.

According to the Illinois Commission on Equity and Inclusion, which oversees the BEP, certification requires a business to have at least 51% ownership by a minority, woman or person with a disability; be at least 51% controlled by one or more minority groups, women or people with disabilities; be owned by a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident alien; and have annual gross sales of less than $150 million.

Companies bidding on the demolition of the Micro Industries buildings were asked to have at least 15% of their vendors be BEP certified, Blackert said.

Initially, McDonagh Demolition and the overall lowest bidder – Environmental Cleansing Corporation, which bid $687,973 – did not meet the required 15%, she said.

The DCEO directed the city to go back to the two lowest bidders and allow them 10 days to revise their vendors and hit the BEP goal, Blackert said. During that time, companies are not allowed to raise their bids, she said.

McDonagh Demolition was able to meet the 15% BEP without raising its prices, but Environmental Cleansing was not, Blackert said.

“Really, it kind of left us no choice,” City Attorney Matt Cole said. “We have to have a low bid, and we also have one that complies with DCEO requirements, and this is the only one.”

The other six bids were Fischer Excavating at $1.043 million; Green Demolition Contractors at $1.08 million, Mass Crushing and Excavating at $1,289,616; Martin & Company Excavating at $1.055 million, Northern Illinois Service Co. at $1,298,394 and Valley Construction Co. at $1,099,900.