The Daily Times building in Portsmouth was demolished overnight Monday, Sept. 30 into Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Photo by Deb Cram)
The historic but badly fire-damaged Daily Times building off State Street was razed overnight (October 1, 2024) as planned in downtown Portsmouth.
A pile of debris from the former building filled the site at the corner of State and Pleasant streets Tuesday morning where the building — which had been totally fenced off — stood until late Monday, September 30.
Crews from Renaud Industries of Portsmouth started their work to take the building down late Monday night and by Tuesday morning a portion of the adjacent road next to the site — which had been closed — was reopened.
A major downtown fire in April 2017 damaged several buildings in the city’s historic district, destroying the State Street Saloon, and badly damaging the 1850 Daily Times building at 278 State St., which has been vacant since the fire.
The property owner, Peter Floros, had long argued the building needed to be taken down for safety reasons, and has pledged to redevelop the site. The redevelopment plan has been described as a four-story mixed-use building with commercial or retail on the first floor and housing above. The housing could feature as many as 17 apartments or condos, according to plans released by Floros’ team.
City officials have estimated it will take about a week until work crews remove all the debris.
Floros filed a demolition permit with the city in August to take the building down.
That submission came a couple of weeks after the city’s Historic District Commission changed its previous position and voted to allow Floros to raze the historic structure.
The HDC in 2023 won a court ruling over Floros, upholding its ruling the building could not be razed.
City officials had previously accused Floros of “demolition by neglect.”
The city in July of this year hired an engineer to inspect the building, finding damage that was “beyond repair.”
Before the demolition, engineer Fred Emanuel, hired by Floros, reported he has “visited the site several times” and it’s his opinion “that there is no temporary fix to guarantee public safety.”
He concluded the “structure is unsafe, has the potential of a progressive collapse, and needs to be demolished immediately.”
Attorney John Kuzinevich, who represents Floros, previously said “obviously everyone on Mr. Floros’ team is excited to be working with the HDC and the Board of Adjustment as needed to be able to build this project that is fully consistent with the historic district and will just improve the area tremendously.”
Designs have been unveiled for a development proposed to replace the 1850 Daily Times building in Portsmouth. (Rendering courtesy of Micheal J. Keane Architects/Provided By John Kuzinevich)
Mayor happy to ‘move forward,’ says agreement could have come sooner
Reached Tuesday morning, Mayor Deaglan McEachern called the demolition work the crews did overnight to take the building down “impressive.”
“Hats off to the crew for their work and for the city for what they did to make sure everything was done safely,” McEachern said. “I drove by it this morning and the next step is moving all the stone away.”
Asked for his impressions after seeing the site, the mayor said “it’s kind of hard not to think about it in terms of the revaluation,” a reference to the citywide reassessment of property values this year.
“That building has not been producing any real taxable income for the city of Portsmouth … for seven years,” he said.
If the city ends up getting a redevelopment project built there that “looks roughly the same as what was there, it seems a little frustrating that it’s taken this long to get the situation resolved,” McEachern said.
In retrospect, if Floros and the HDC had started off working cooperatively, “instead of having an adversarial tone,” McEachern said, the redevelopment project “could have been seven years down the line.”
“I’m happy now that it can move forward with something similar to absorb the historic aspects of the Daily Times building from the plans that I saw,” he said.
He acknowledged that “at times it’s not possible” for the HDC “to have the outcome that they want.”
“A lot of people love coming into our downtown, love the charm and scale of it, but the fire created a situation where eventually over time and with neglect, the building became unsafe,” McEachern said. “I don’t think we’ll lose the historic character of this because we have a reproduction of the former building, which I hope will blend into the fabric of our downtown.”
City Councilor Rich Blalock, who also serves on the HDC, said he’s “happy we can move forward.”
“Having that eyesore right at the edge of downtown was very unpleasant for a lot of people,” he said Tuesday. “I understand they want to hold on to one of our historic buildings, and we want to protect our history, but that building was so damaged by the fire.”
Then, having it sit for seven years and “getting waterlogged, it was unreasonable to think that rehabbing it was a possibility,” Blalock said.
He added he hopes “the plans presented” by Floros will “be the plans that get built.”
He believes the seven year process shows that “obviously things work better when everyone tries to work together.”
“I hope from now on everyone can work together, and I hope the city can learn from this, the HDC can learn from this, and hopefully other building owners can too,” Blalock said.
He came away from the preliminary work session the HDC had with Floros’ representatives believing they want to build something similar to what they’ve proposed for the site.
“That could be a nice new business for the downtown, with maybe a restaurant or another watering hole,” he said.
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