DeKALB – The condemned Edgebrook Manor Apartment building, 912 Edgebrook Drive, will be demolished after city council members approved a resolution at Monday’s meeting.

The property was acquired by the city in 2016 and has been inhabitable since 2014, according to the Nov. 23 city council agenda. The cost to demolish the building is estimated to be $295,680.

City Manager Bill Nicklas said the demolition is mostly funded by a Community Development Block Grant. The CDBG is a federally funded program aimed to increase housing, community and economic opportunities for low-income and moderate-income residents in the city. 

“This was sort of a council commitment, we’ve got one-half of the worst buildings in AGN down, and that was the Campus Cinema and this number two,” Nicklas said. 

The apartment building features an uninhabitable 48,000 square foot, the four-story apartment building of masonry construction, which once contained 47 apartment units, according to the agenda. 

The building occupies approximately 8,000 square feet of the lot. The parking lot pavement which will also be removed totals about 14,500 square feet and is in failing condition.

Mayor Jerry Smith said the building is just one of those things where residents probably kept asking “when are they ever going to get that down?”

“We’ve been saying it’s a marathon, not a sprint out there and we’re just so happy with the progress we’re making, albeit be slowly, but we’re doing it,” Smith said.