Here’s a demolition most everyone is applauding. Work has resumed to demolish the remaining towers in the Kensington Heights public housing development on Glenny Drive behind ECMC. The effort was stalled after an asbestos removal job was botched two years ago.
Kensington Towers was built in 1958 and has been vacant since 1980. It was built as a federal and state development with sixty-seven units per building and some common area space on a twelve acre site.
The Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority secured a bridge loan from M&T Bank finish the demolition project. Two of the six buildings had already been demolished and the loan from M&T supplemented the remaining $3.3 million in state funds to demolish the remaining buildings, which were filled with asbestos. Two buildings remain.
The future of the site is unknown. Heritage Heights, a continuum of care elderly housing project, appears to be dead.