KIANKAKEE, Ill. (AP) — The Kankakee plant that once bustled with 3,000 workers building gas and electric stoves is coming down.
City records show a Chicago company has obtained a demolition permit to raze the 810,000-square-foot Kankakee Roper building on 35 acres on the city's west side.
The (Kankakee) Daily Journal reports (https://bit.ly/1QOG36d ) Roper moved its manufacturing plant to Georgia in 1982. General Electric Co. bought the company — and the Kankakee property — in 1987.
A GE spokesman said the company has no plans yet for the property. The $1.38 million demolition should be complete by August.
Documents filed with the code enforcement department indicate buildings on the campus will be leveled to slabs and basements backfilled.
The location is considered a "brownfield," meaning environmental contamination must be cleaned up before it's redeveloped.
