Bob Kunze, 57, used to work at the Hub back in the day, washing dishes at a restaurant. He ran down the list of tenants as if they were there yesterday — stores like W.T. Grant, and the movie theater. Kunze used to wait in line at the movie theater the first night the films would open.
Three excavators armed with special attachments and hydraulic shields tore into the back of the building facing Mill Street. The heavy machines hovered around the building, chomping at the structure, tearing off bits of concrete and snipping metal. A lone man wearing a white helmet and a brown jacket walked between the machines. The operators paused the excavators, the jaws of the vehicles pointing downward at the man as if considering him a small treat. Shortly after, the work began again in earnest.
Nothing as dramatic as a wrecking ball will crash into the building, erected decades ago with steel beams, metal decking and masonry brick. “The wrecking ball is a myth. That’s just for high rises,” said Jerry Bijelonic, project manager for J.R. Contracting of Wayne, N.J.
For the next six weeks, Bijelonic’s machines will track along the property, clearing the way for the downtown’s new tomorrow.
Mayor Mark D. Benigni took the ceremonial first chunk out of the Hub earlier in the morning, a task he described with some glee. “They set me up in a truck and I got to take the first bite. It was exciting to finally see the Hub coming down,” he said.
In 1969, when construction began on the Hub building, then-Mayor Donald Dorsey mounted a pile driver and cut the earth. The people at the time regarded the mall as the key to saving downtown. One might argue that officials today might feel the same way.
A $2 million state grant paid for the demolition project and Benigni pledges that city resources will not be used to develop the area. Preliminary plans for the 7-acre site call for a park, which will help with flood control, a transportation center, paid for with state money, and some private economic development.
“Once the structure is gone and the lot is left green, people will start to be able to visualize what the downtown can become. As long as the building stands there in a blighted condition it is tough to dream about the future possibilities,” Benigni said. “People are looking more towards the future than they are concerned about the past.”
A preliminary plan for the site should be completed within the next 60 to 90 days, said City Manager Lawrence J. Kendzior.
Ken Cowing, a city historian, said the area around the Hub has been a center for business development since the railroad was constructed along State Street in the 1840s. When downtown factories started closing — a common problem among many Connecticut mill towns — the area began to die. The 1960s solution to the problem was to build a shopping mall, which didn’t work in Meriden because of flooding and crime. “This seemed to be the general trend,” Cowing said.
While Cowing expressed some concern about the possible cost of downtown development, he would argue that it is still necessary. “Meriden deserves a better appearance than it has,” Cowing said.
Kunze and his buddy weren’t at all sorry to see the old shopping mall go. His cigar-smoking friend, a grizzled man clad in plaid flannel with a gray beard, never took his eyes off the building. “We’ll be here all day watching this,” he said, declining to give his name.
He has his ideas about what should be done to the site. A few buildings on the Pratt Street side of the property might be nice. He isn’t so sure about the park though. He is sure of one thing, the same thing city officials have been saying for a long time.
“It’s good that they are taking it down,” he said. “It’s useless.”
