'It's just so sad': DC Cook office building demolition begins

Standing along the construction fence erected in front of the former DC Cook office building on Grove Avenue in Elgin, Kerry Kelly watched as a backhoe knocked down one of the recognizable cupolas along the north wing.

"Very upsetting," Kelly said Tuesday as demolition began on the 120-year-old building. "It's just so sad, such a tragic waste of energy, resources, and history taken down by this giant, evil backhoe."

Kelly and a group from the Northeast Neighborhood Association led an effort in the past few months to try to save the historic building. A few weeks ago, some members of the Elgin City Council proposed a more than $3.75 million letter of intent to purchase the former Christian publishing company building and the 9-acre property. But the city council voted 5-4 against the measure.

"In a time when we have people who can't pay their rent, can't pay their water bill, is this the highest and best use of money in the city of Elgin?" Mayor David Kaptain said at the time of the vote. "I find this to be irresponsible."

The neoclassical office building has sat vacant since its owners moved their headquarters to Colorado in 1995. The Elgin Heritage Commission said the building met nine of the 11 criteria needed to designate it a landmark, but the city council voted against the designation last year, noting it had never landmarked a building against an owner's wishes.

"The city of Elgin consistently refuses to live up to its potential," neighborhood resident Betsy Couture said as she stood across the street from the building Tuesday. "And that's why things like this happen."

The company removed most of the building's roof last month, likely exacerbating problems the structure already had from previous water damage that caused extensive mold and instability. The building underwent asbestos remediation in early July.

David C Cook interim CEO Scott Miller said in a statement the company had tried to sell the property for years without success.

"Since 2006, we have sought to identify potential alternative uses for the campus that were agreeable to the surrounding neighborhood and were commercially viable," the statement read. "In 2017, after a break in the city's main water line caused extensive damage to the vacant office building, it became a health and safety issue for our workers and the neighborhood.

"At that time, we notified the city of Elgin and the North East Neighborhood Association (NENA) of the situation and made significant efforts to identify a viable adaptive reuse of the campus. However, it became clear that our only way forward was to initiate demolition of the office building."

Miller's statement said removing the building will "open a number of possibilities for use of the campus in a way that can enhance the surrounding community."

The company said demolition will be completed this week. It plans to continue using the existing warehouses behind the office building as it pursues redevelopment of the property.