Demolition On Old Washington Mall Set To Begin

On Friday, in front of a backdrop of a partially demolished wall and under the raindrops from a summer storm, local, county and state government officials gathered with members of the new owners and demolition team of the Washington Mall to celebrate the first steps in its demolition. Tony Rosenberger is a member of the development team 79/70 Associates that closed on the purchase of the mall two weeks ago for a purchase price of more than $12 million. He detailed the chronology of events that led up to the celebration of the demolition. Washington County Commissioner Nick Sherman described Washington County’s role in delivering $5.9 million in county blight mitigation funds to the project to spearhead the demolition. While everyone there was celebrating, one South Strabane Township resident did not share the same view. Thomas Lonich attended the event at the invite of Sherman. Lonich spoke out at the most recent commissioner’s meeting asking for transparency of the county’s involvement. He also questioned the logic in using taxpayer dollars for a demolition project that he feels could have been funded by the developers themselves. With no environmental issues to navigate, the project is set to begin. In addition to the funding. Washington County will be contributing debris from the Courthouse Square building demolition to use as fill on the Washington Mall site.