A demolished portion of a decades-old shopping center in Sheffield Lake, Ohio, is not only providing recyclable materials, but the land will soon be producing renewable energy via three different methods.
About half of the Shoreway Shopping Center, built in 1958, is currently being dismantled by Affordable Demolition and Hauling (ADH). The Cleveland-based contractor, working in cooperation with Cooper Disposal, Avon, Ohio, has mapped out a strategy to recycle the vast majority of materials emanating from the job site.
ADH’s Vince Collazo says his company was able to formulate a winning bid for the project contingent on its ability to properly harvest metal, concrete, brick and block in ways that will maximize the value of the material.
Sheffield Lake Safety Services Director Joe Arendt says that the city likewise was impressed with ADH’s bid because of the recycling rate that it promised as well as accompanying details as to how it could achieve its recycling rate. “I did due diligence, and even other bidders had good things to say about the way Vince and his company operate. So far, he’s done everything he said he’d do.”
The company’s recycling did not come at the expense of delaying the project, Arendt points out. “It’s also important to the city to get this done,” he comments. “When we secured bids, one of the conditions was that demolition work had to start by March 31.”
Both Collazo and Cooper have had experience with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) projects and have collaborated to obtain maximum recycling percentages in the past. “It developed as a niche,” says Cooper of serving LEED projects, “but it has opened a lot of doors.”
Cooper says his company in the past three years has grown from a one-truck operation to one that now has six trucks and more than 100 roll-off containers.
After the demolition work is complete, green energy considerations will begin to take center stage. Part of the shopping center will remain standing and continues to host retail customers while part of the land being opened up will be used as a park.
In addition to hosting recreational activities, the park land will also host as many as three different types of renewable energy sources, according to Bill Gardner, Sheffield Lake’s grants administrator.
One or more windmills will take advantage of the land’s location along the Lake Erie shoreline, which provides 11.6-mile-per-hour average winds. That energy will be directed to provide power to a new municipal boathouse that has been built on the Lake Erie shoreline across the road from the shopping center.
Additionally, a geothermal well is being planned that will provide power to a grocery store that has remained as part of the Shoreway Shopping Center.
And, should the revamped area attract new retail tenants, Gardner and Sheffield Lake are working on a grant that will help fund new solar panels as a third source of locally-generated power.