CLEVELAND, Ohio - FirstEnergy's architecturally impressive Lake Shore power plant degraded so much in condition after it closed in phases starting in 2012 that it can't be preserved and reused.

So said officials of the utility Wednesday during a tour of the 57-acre plant, which overlooks Lake Erie and the I-90 Shoreway at East 72nd Street.

The FirstEnergy engineers said they knew of London's Tate Modern museum, which turned the decommissioned Bankside power plant on the Thames River into one of the world's most spectacular contemporary art venues.

A labeled photo of the FirstEnergy Lake Shore plant omits recent improvements such as new voltage control equipment installed recently on the site in the "SVC Area."

But they said no such potential exists at the Lake Shore plant.

FirstEnergy closed the coal-fired plant, parts of which are a century old, rather than upgrade pollution control equipment to remove mercury and other toxic substances from smokestack emissions as required by new federal regulations.

Consequences of closing

As soon as the facility was no longer burning coal and producing heat, pipes and downspouts froze during winter months, heavily damaging its major coal-burning structures, they said.

"Once you deactivate, you basically compromise" the plant, said Mark Vindivich, a FirstEnergy engineer leading the demolition process. "When there's no heat, [roof drains] freeze and burst. Water just comes down through the plant."

FirstEnergy hopes to begin a $15 million demolition in late spring or early summer, and then to offer the 57-acre site for sale.

A panorama at the Lake Shore power plant.

The utility hasn't set a price or devised a plan to market the property, said spokeswoman Jennifer Young.

Contractors from Bet-Tech Construction Inc. in Aliquippa Pennsylvania, and Independence Excavating in Independence would use standard procedures including sprayed water to suppress dust from the demolition, and materials would be recycled, Young said.

Cleaning the site

She and other FirstEnergy officials said the utility would remove the top 2 feet of soil from the site and grade the property so it drains toward its former water treatment ponds, without creating puddles or swampy areas.

The utility would cap the land with fresh topsoil, plant it with grass, and await offers from buyers.

Existing roads and rail spurs would remain, as would a "screenhouse" that prevents floating debris from entering the plant's water intake canal, which connects directly to Lake Erie via twin channels underneath the Shoreway.

FirstEnergy would also continue to operate a 13-acre facility south of the main plant, where it will operate newly completed high-voltage transmission line equipment.

As it stands, Lake Shore is a brawny collection of conveyors, rail lines, coal furnaces and water treatment facilities, sandwiched between rail lines to the south and the highway to the north.

Architectural power

At the heart of it all is a massive turbine room of the facility's A Plant, built in the 1940s, with an interior that resembles a cathedral devoted to electricity, albeit one that's crumbling.

"Mother Nature is taking its course on the building," said Joseph Cerer, a FirstEnergy technical services engineer.

The water intake channel was frozen over Wednesday, Jan. 27.

He pointed to spots high overhead in the turbine room where glazed, yellow-colored ceramic blocks had peeled away from an underlying steel column.

Cerer also pointed to nets installed underneath the turbine room's massive steel roof trusses to catch falling debris.

"I've spent a lot of time trying to make everything safe," Cerer said.

Despite such conditions, FirstEnergy can't proceed with demolition because the city's Downtown/Flats Design Review Committee tabled the company's request in December for a demolition permit, saying that the utility hadn't provided enough information.

Still seeking a permit

Talks between the utility and the city are underway.

City Planning Director Freddy Collier said Wednesday that the city initially felt the facility had the potential to be preserved and reused.

But Collier said the utility has made what he called "a compelling case" in favor of demolition at Lake Shore.

The planning director said "we'll know more definitely about the prospect of demolition or salvaging or anything of that nature" after he tours the site.

For now, he views the plant as a "win-win" no matter what happens, because demolition would create a 57-acre development site overlooking the lake.

"This is not a bad thing, regardless of how it turns out," he said.

Collier said the city hasn't contemplated buying the site, but is keenly interested in its potential, given its proximity to the lakefront and nearby Gordon Park, located just to the east across East 72nd Street.

David Beach, director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's GreenCityBlueLake Institute, said "the worst thing would be for the site to linger as a brownfield for a long time."

He said potential uses "could range from green space to residential development to even some kind of creative industrial redevelopment, given that the site is in an industrial corridor with rail access."

Neighborhood concerns

Residents of Quay 55, the apartment complex that occupies a renovated warehouse atop a pier north of the Shoreway at East 55th Street, said at a meeting Tuesday night that they'd like to "see mixed use and retail much like the East Bank of the Flats," said Joseph Giuliano, president of the Downtown Cleveland Residents Association, which convened the meeting.

The residents also expressed concerns about whether FirstEnergy would leave the site free of environmental hazards, Giuliano said.

Young said that FirstEnergy "has maintained Lake Shore in accordance with all local, state and federal environmental permits and requirements both during operation and in its current decommissioned state."

She said the utility would allow potential buyers to conduct additional soil tests or perform the tests itself if asked.

In each stage of the demolition and preparation of the site, Young said, FirstEnergy has one primary concern: safety.