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A long-defunct freight train station in Fort Myers was demolished Monday to make way for a 420-unit, six-story apartment complex at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Seaboard Street.  

Honc Destruction began tearing down the walls at about 8:30 a.m.  

“We’ll take it down piece by piece,” David Mulicka, owner of Honc Destruction said. “We take out the wood and the concrete and the metal. We’ll separate it into piles for recycling.”  

Almost all of the materials from the 16,000-square-foot building, which was built in 1930, will be recycled, Mulicka said.  

Jerry Miller, co-owner of the property, will be developing the apartment complex with the site being prepared for construction over the next few months.  

“We are just getting ready to break ground,” he said. “We are finalizing the architectural plans. I would think we start our site work in April-May and then maybe June-July, we’ll start our actual vertical construction, depending on how long it takes. It’s coming along.”Seaboard Waterside apartments rendering in Fort Myers  

City of Fort Myers recently changed the traffic flow just east of downtown Fort Myers, allowing two-way instead of one-way traffic on First and Second streets. That change was critical for the apartment project to proceed, Miller said.  

“It’s a unique project, since we’re in a preserve area,” he said of the adjacent Billy’s Creek. “It’s very unique to have. The two-way helped us tremendously. I don’t think we could have done this project without that two-way change. The access would have been too difficult.”  

Miller said he received some resistance on tearing down the building because of its age, but restoring it and integrating it into the new construction would have been too difficult.  

“We assessed it,” he said. “We hired a company. It was a termite-ridden, hurricane-severely damaged building. I met with Dean Park residents. We talked about putting in some green space. Like a park. So that’s happening.Seaboard Waterside apartments rendering in Fort Myers“That building, in itself, it’s an old building. Just look at the roof. A lot of the roof was damaged. But even before that, it was not in good shape. But the hurricane put it over the top, for sure. I loved that building. It’s a shame. But to rehab that building would be millions of dollars.”  

Miller and his co-investors have owned parts of the property for more than a decade now.  

“It’s been a long journey in planning,” he said. “We worked with a number of agencies to better the water quality of the city.”

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