FLINT, MI -- A goal has been set for Genesee Towers to be down before the 2013 Crim Festival of Races.

Uptown Reinvestment Corp. President Tim Herman said the nonprofit aims to have the long-vacant building down and the rubble cleared away before the Aug. 24 races.

Herman, who is also CEO of the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, wouldn't comment on the cost associated with tearing down the 19-story city-owned building.

He made the statement in an interview with MLive-Flint Journal about the plan to move the Flint Farmers' Market into the downtown at the former Flint Journal printing building.

Genesee Towers is scheduled to be torn down by April 2014 as part of a $32 million redevelopment project that also includes moving the Flint Farmers' Market and bringing Michigan State University's College of Medicine's public health and medical education program to the former Flint Journal office building.

The Farmers' Market, which is managed by Uptown Reinvestment, is slated to move into its new facility the spring of 2014.

Genesee Towers, built 44 years ago, is the city's tallest building.

Former Flint emergency manager Michael Brown approved a deal in August to transfer the building to Uptown Reinvestment Corp. for $1.

A proposal for the site where Genesee Towers is located has suggested the property would be used for an urban plaza and that demolishing the structure could cost as much as $4 million.

The demolition of the structure has created

and one resident,

Wade Merrill, erased it from a photo of the city's skyline to see how it looked.

The image generated conversation after it was posted on the Flint Expatriates blog and Facebook page.

The groundbreaking for Genesee Towers was held in 1966 and construction was completed in 1968 with a $6.5 million price tag.