EDGEWATER — By mid-fall, the ongoing demolition of the former Edgewater Medical Center should be complete, developers told Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th).
MCZ Development, the development firm behind the controversial hospital's transformation into a passive park and apartment building with parking, recently told O'Connor that it expects the tear-down of four of the campus' structures to finish up by September or October.
Once the demolition has wrapped, MCZ can begin construction on the park, as well as the permitting process to redevelop the Ashland Avenue-facing buildings into apartments.
Part of the current demolition will include separating out salvageable items, such as bricks and metal, some of which developers hope to reuse during redevelopment.
In the meantime, construction crews are working on asbestos removal on Hollywood Avenue, clearing out space in one of the Ashland buildings to get more accurate measurements of the property's interior and chipping away at demolition to make way for large tear-down equipment.
MCZ also said it was given the green light from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District to begin pumping water out of the basement of the hospital.
Developers said they expect the amount of water to be "significantly less" than what was pumped from below the hospital's parking garage, which residents had earlier described as emitting a "putrid" smell throughout the immediate area.
Photographers who have ventured inside the abandoned medical center have described five to six feet of standing water in some portions of the basement.
"We believe the pumping might only need to occur for a couple of weeks," MCZ told O'Connor.
Take a look inside the hospital below, as captured by explorer Mike Kinsch.
