Demolition of Broad Street Parkade Set for Early May

Those tired of driving or walking past the dilapidated, boarded up remains of the Broad Street Parkade day after day may soon be in for a pleasant surprise - in less than two weeks, is finally slated to begin. 

According to General Manager Scott Shanley, demolition of the parkade, a long abandoned shopping plaza that sits on almost 20 acres of land on Broad Street, is scheduled to begin May 7. 

"It's been a long time coming," Shanley said of the project. 

The town purchased the parkade for $1.85 million in March of 2011 and have been proceeding ahead with environmental remediation work required before the demolition can begin ever since. The plaza itself has been largely vacant since the early 1990s, when the Shoppes at Buckland Hills mall began to draw many of its larger stores to the other side of town. 

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Public Works Director Mark Carlino said that Costello Dismantling Company out of Middleboro, MA, will be handling the demolition for an estimated cost of about $566,000. Carlino said that, after the initial demolition work, it would still probably require several more weeks of work "leveling off" at the site, but said all the work should be done by early summer at the latest. 

"It's going to be about six weeks for demolition and then another couple of weeks to work on cleaning the site off," Carlino said. "By the end of June, we expect all the work to be completely done." 

From there, Shanley said, the town will then try to gauge the interest of potential private developers who might want to develop the parcel in the town's . 

"Then we'll see what the private sector has to say about the site," Shnaley said. 

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