Demolition work on the Polaris Building resumed on Tuesday, leaving some streets in the downtown business core once more closed off for the spring and summer.
According to a project update, the project will last through the summer with an expected completion date in early October.
Street closures will include First Avenue between Lacey and Noble streets and Lacey Street from Wendell Avenue to Second Avenue. Wendell will be closed to traffic on Noble Street.
Eastbound traffic will be detoured onto Second Avenue and westbound traffic will be detoured onto Third Avenue.
The parking lot next to the Rabinowitz Courthouse will be allowed to be used by those with an Alaska court permit and for disability access only.
Anchorage-based Coldfoot Environmental Services started the structural decommissioning of the 73-year-old building last June after thoroughly gutting its insides and removing hazardous materials such as asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
By October, the contractor had removed the top four floors before wrapping up construction for the winter.
In 2023, it removed the one-story annex on the building’s back end at Lacey and Second Avenue.
Fairbanks received a $10 million federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 to tear down the derelict building. In 2023, Mayor David Pruhs secured additional funding from the state of Alaska to cover any extra costs.
The 11-story mixed-use building was built in 1952 and was the first for Interior Alaska. It was home to offices, 144 apartments, and a restaurant. However, its heyday was in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It passed through several owners over several years.
The building’s operational use ended in 2021 after frozen pipes in the basement burst, causing severe flood damage.
For the next several years, attempts to renovate the building were made, but funding never materialized. Pruhs led a working group for several years to secure city ownership of the building and funding to tear it down. The borough foreclosed on it due to three years of missed property taxes and the city purchased with community provided donations.
Pruhs told the Fairbanks City Council Monday night that the city is putting together a request for proposals on what to do with the site after it’s demolished and filled in.
Contact reporter Jack Barnwell at 907-459-7587 or jbarnwell@newsminer.com.
