Kodak Building 53 to be demolished, imploded
Kodak Park implosion: Building 9 | 00:29Building 9 in Kodak Park was demolished on June 30, 2007.
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Kodak Park implosions: Building 23 | 00:31Building 23 in Kodak Park was demolished on July 3, 2007.
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Employees, residents react to Kodak Park implosions | 02:17Sights and sounds from the Kodak Park implosions in 2007.
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Kodak Park implosion: Building 9, from ground level | 00:40Building 9 in Kodak Park was demolished on June 30, 2007.
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Getting ready for the Kodak Park implosions: Building 65 & 69 | 00:40Preparing for the implosions at Kodak Park. Video by Tina MacIntyre-Yee
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Building 53 at Eastman Business Park is scheduled to be taken down about 8 a.m. July 18 with an explosive demolition and implosion.
Kodak is planning to set up a "command center" for media cameras to record and broadcast the event. No official public viewing area has been established for the event, said Kodak spokesperson Kelly Mandarano.
The last time the downsized company removed a building this way was in 2007, when several buildings were demolished using dramatic explosive implosions.
In that summer and fall, buildings 9, 23, 50, 65 and 69 were imploded, often before a crowd of spectators. On Oct. 6, 2007, more than 1,000 people gathered to watch the implosions of Building 65 and Building 69 near the intersection of Dewey Avenue and West Ridge Road.
At its height, Eastman Business Park, formerly called Kodak Park, was the largest industrial complex in the Northeast. Since 1995, more than 80 structures on the 1,300-acre site have been taken down.
"Kodak has put a lot of money into this site and making is ready for repurposing," Mandarano said.
"We really feel strongly that this wasn't something we wanted to let decay. This is just another example of taking the steps necessary to get ready for growth and not let old buildings become a safety issue," she said.
Built in 1923, the 250,000-square-foot building was used for acetate film base manufacturing.
"It's located in the eastern portion of the campus where we're looking to site some of the bio-materials activity," she said.
The state is constributing $5 million toward the construction of a $25 million Bioscience Manufacturing Center at Eastman Business Park.
"We're hopeful that we'll see new growth in that sector," Mandarano said.
While Kodak still owns the property, the building was sold about two years ago to Moses B. Glick LLC, a salvage company in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania.
"There was all kinds of steel, machinery, parts in there," said Elam Stoltzfus, vice president of Moses B. Glick.
Kodak's deal with Glick was that Glick would take down the building by the end of this year.
Stoltzfus said implosion is the safest way of doing that. His company hired Dykon Explosive Demolition Corp., based in Tulsa, Okla.
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