The City of Duluth is finally starting a long awaited project. The Downtown Duluth demolition of the Shoppers Auto parking ramp began on Wednesday, April 23rd. This abandoned structure continued crumbling for quite some time it closed down back in 2019. Discussions over what to do about it have been going on for nearly a decade.

The Duluth Economic Development Authority (DEDA) is investing nearly a million dollars start the beginning phase for this massive tear-down. For the past six years, this parking ramp in downtown Duluth was long abandoned. Mainly due to its poor structural integrity and issues with squatters.

DEDA actually bought this property and the adjacent new Garrick building to expand business ventures in downtown. City Councilor-At-Large Arik Forsman says they are committing $900,000 to the project.

“We’re on a new trajectory downtown, and it’s not going to happen overnight. It’s an exciting day for Duluth to have one of our most blighted structures gone. We’re not just clearing the concrete, we’re also clearing an opportunity here for what comes next for downtown.”

William Matos works at Resurrection Tattoo just diagonally across from the project. He says removing this eyesore in the community will bring in more economic growth to downtown area.

“We’re right across the street, so we get to look at it every day. So we’re really excited to see it go, and excited to see what’s going to happen next with the new business and the new traffic it’ll bring in. We’re going to see a lot of good things. We’ll see a lot of new things that’ll make Duluth even better than what it is.”

Any longtime Duluth resident will tell you that the Shoppers Auto parking ramp has been around for several years. Ben Carleton, is the co-president of Carelton Company, and coordinating the Downtown Duluth demolition. He says they will finish the project is only going to take about three and a half months

“About the first of august we should be wrapping things up. So we’ve been basically drawing up where the beams are in place. Crew is in there removing the soft materials, the sheetrock, plaster, and finding where the structure is attached to.”

The Carleton company will be carefully deconstructing the parking ramp. The city of Duluth want to retain the neighboring New Garrik building for future housing potential. Mayor Roger Reinert says the goal is to support more residential and retail opportunities in the downtown area.

“That building is being saved because we want that first street corridor to be a residential hub. We want it to have character, to be interesting, a place that people want to live and shop and eat and do all of those things. So kudos to the Carleton Company who knows how to do this and is going to do a great job.”

DEDA tells me there are no firm plans yet, as to what will replace the parking ramp. We do know however that the city is planning to conduct other demolition projects over the summer in downtown.