One of Broadway’s best-known buildings is about to be demolished

When Envision purchased the former J.R. Koontz Flowers building at 633 N. Broadway earlier this year, CEO Michael Monteferrante said there were no immediate plans for the 10,000-square-foot structure.

Now, there are. Demolition is about to begin on the building.

Envision purchased the building because it’s near its headquarters at 610 N. Main St., said Terri Maus, senior director of marketing.

“And it’s such an iconic building, we thought that maybe there was some use for it at some point.”

Initially, she said, “We didn’t have firm plans what we were going to do with it.”

Then, she said work crews found mold and asbestos in the building.

“Unfortunately, it just couldn’t be salvaged,” Maus said. “The crews that were doing remediation said it was too far gone.”

She said Envision does not have plans to build on the property or do anything else with it at this time, but Maus added that with the nonprofit’s constant growth and expansion, that could change.