Demolition begins on long-abandoned Phoenix Trotting Park
Sep 27, 2017, 1:30 PM | Updated: Sep 28, 2017, 8:14 am
(Screenshot)
(Screenshot)
PHOENIX — A Phoenix-area landmark for more than 50 years falls victim to the wrecking ball starting Wednesday.
Demolition is underway at Phoenix Trotting Park near Interstate 10 and Loop 303 in Goodyear. The track opened in 1965 and operated for two seasons before it was shut down because of low attendance and flooding that sometimes limited access to the track.
Jim Middleton owns BCS Enterprises in Gilbert, the demolition company doing the job. He said the project was moved up from December. It will take two days to bring the park down and two months to haul it all away.
“It’ll be before Thanksgiving because all of this machinery is going to Sun Devil Stadium to start taking a section of the stadium down starting the first of December,” Middleton said.
“The owners of the former trotting park wanted to take the building down now so it’s not an attractive nuisance. They’ve had a lot of trespassing and they want the structure down and out.”
Middleton said this won’t be an implosion but a slow, methodical process involving heavy machinery, including one of the world’s largest demolition excavators brought in from Norway a year ago.
Goodyear hopes the 194-acre property will be redeveloped for business.
