After sitting vacant for over a decade, the old Clarkesville Ingles building is finally coming down. Late Monday morning, March 25, crews from D. H. Griffin Wrecking Company of Atlanta arrived and began clearing the building on West Louise Street.
The day started early with a site assessment and inspection to ensure no one was inside the building. Crews then roped off the area around the old Ingles building for safety.
Project Manager Cedric Paul tells Now Habersham the old grocery store building will be on the ground by Thursday afternoon, March 28. He says his supervisor gave him ten days to have the site cleaned up.
“I always try to beat my deadlines,” he says. “It all depends on the turnaround on all the trucks.”
The demolition company has contracted with Habersham C & D to provide the roll-off containers and dispose of the demolition debris. Habersham C & D is located on Welcome Home Road in Mt. Airy, allowing trucks to make the round trip to the demolition site faster.
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A long time coming
Clarkesville Zoning Administrator Caleb Gaines was on site Monday morning, March 25, to watch as the demolition began. For several years, Gaines tried to get the owner, Ingles Real Estate, to either clean up the rundown property or demolish it. In October 2023, he sent a letter to the company outlining 18 building code violations it needed to address.
After years of Ingles ignoring the city’s request, Gaines pushed to have the building condemned. The Clarkesville Planning Commission backed up his recommendation, and on February 5, the Clarkesville City Council unanimously voted to condemn the building.
“It feels pretty good, actually,” said Gaines as he watched the excavator punch the first hole in the building. “I am pretty happy how things unfolded.”
Gaines commends Ingles for moving forward quickly with the project.
“Ingles has been great to work with. The construction manager communicated very well.” He adds, “It’s just exciting to see so much happening in Clarkesville. We needed it to happen sooner than later.”
Ingles abandoned the property when it built a new store at its current location less than a half-mile away on East Louise Street.
The North Carolina-based company has not told Gaines what it intends to do with the property once the demolition is complete. From the information he has received, the company will clean the site up and leave the slab to keep the property low maintenance for the time being.
Gaines says he is certain that something will be built on the site in the future.
