Slowly sinking into the marshland beneath its foundation, the building was approved for demolition on Jan. 17.
Ocoee resident Ginger Bolinski had gone to pay her water bill at Ocoee's new city hall when the demolition of the city's old city hall, by Casselberry company, Advanced Demolition LLC, caught her attention. She took these photos and posted them on NextDoor, where VoxPopuli spotted them. She's allowed us to reproduce them here.
"I saw them tearing it down, so wanted photos," she told us in a message exchange on NextDoor.
The Old City Hall, located at 150 Lakeshore Drive, was built in 1994 in harmony with the 1888 Gothic Stick Style architecture of the Withers-Maguire House. But within six years, the building, which had been built on the marshland after the waters of Starke Lake had receded, had sunk six inches into the ground. Even a $35,000 rehabilitation project undertaken in 2014 ultimately was unable to stop the sinking. Ocoee City Manager Robert Frank told VoxPopuli in January that the building "would likely continue to settle" and anything beyond "limited occupation cannot be allowed." Demolition was approved during the Jan. 17 city commission meeting.
"Looks great! Can’t wait to see what’s coming in it’s place—hopefully it’s [sic] foundation is more solid and steady…" commented Laura Norman of The Reserve at Meadow Lake on NextDoor.
While ideas for site use abounded on the NextDoor thread — from the "Perry Norman Library & Municipal Complex" to reimagining Starke Lake as a family entertainment center — District 1 Commissioner Scott Kennedy confirmed via text message that to date, the city has no plans for the site. He added that a master developer will be brought in and workshops are planned.
Updated Sept. 1 to reflect addition of the demolition company.