Soaring Eagle Inn demolition put on hold; Further renovations could require township’s approval

Plans to destruct the Soaring Eagle Inn are on hold as officials wait for a demolition permit.

The inn, located at 5665 E. Pickard Road, was set to be demolished in March, but an abatement permit to determine the level of asbestos in the building and if it can be demolished has yet to be received, said Mary Kilmer, marketing and public relations manager for Migizi Economic Development Corporation, an affiliate of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe.

Plans call for the building to be torn down to create space for a 45,000-square-foot indoor water park. The tribe will operate the park, slated to open in spring 2011.

Official results on the abatement could be received early this week. That would not delay the demolition process more than two weeks, Kilmer said.

“It’s not that we are expecting that there is, but it is required to get a demolition permit,” Kilmer said of the possibility of asbestos problems.

Plans to demolish the inn have not changed, Kilmer said, though the process is taking longer than initially expected.

“Every time you construct a program, you build in leeway for things like this,” she said.

If the inn is not demolished, officials may have to appear before the Union Township Zoning Board of Appeals, said Township zoning administrator William “Woody” Woodruff.

There would be no problems if they only did internal renovations, he said, but an extra story or a water slide tower would require another meeting.

“If they increase the outside dimensions of the building, then that would require a review,” Woodruff said.

Plans for the water slide tower portion of the water park were approved by the Union Township Zoning Board of Appeals on Feb. 3. Since then, there was an auction to sell furniture and other useful portions of the inn that could be salvaged.