Demolition begins in earnest at Colony site

Full-scale demolition of the buildings at the site of the former Colony Beach & Tennis Resort has begun.

An excavator began carving into Building 15 on Aug. 8 as crew members worked to remove asbestos from the buildings next on the demo list. 

Demolition teams have razed two buildings to date — buildings 15 and 16 at the northeast corner of the property.

Asbestos has been removed from at least eight buildings to date, said John Thanasides, president of Sonny Glasbrenner Inc. and superintendent for the site.

“It’s a pretty straight-forward project,” Thanasides said. “There’s nothing too surprising here.”

Thanasides said he and his team can demolish a building in one day. It’s the removal of the debris that takes some time. That’s because local trucking companies, which can haul 60,000 pounds of material off the site in one load, are busy.

“You’re always at the mercy of the trucking companies,” Thanasides said. “They’re real busy, and they’re trying to squeeze us in.”

Contractors could wreck more buildings, but Thanasides said he’d rather wait for trucks to take away debris as not to upset the town or neighboring residents with large piles of debris. 

Contractors even changed their plans to accommodate the Aquarius Club to the north of the property, which didn’t want demolition to take place as winter residents begin returning, Thanasides said.

Demolition of the site is scheduled to take 120 days, as permitted by a town emergency demolition order. That gives contractors until December to complete the work. Residential buildings are first in the plan to be knocked down, followed by beachside structures late in the process, because of sea turtle nesting.