FORT WORTH, Texas — The city of Fort Worth has taken a significant step toward demolishing abandoned grain silos looming over the Worth Heights neighborhood.
The Building Standards Commission (BSC) in March unanimously declared the facility "substandard and hazardous." The designation allows the city to knock down the silos if the property owner, 3500 Alice Trust, does not present a plan for their demolition or renovation by April 25.
Such a response appears unlikely. Code compliance officers have tried and failed to contact the trustee for eight years. He also owes more than $200,000 in taxes related to the property.
"This is very dangerous and we don't need it in the neighborhood anymore," Worth Heights Neighborhood Association vice president Vicki Bargas told WFAA Thursday. "They're a monstrosity."
Fort Worth Grain Elevator Co. president Jules G. Smith announced the construction of the complex in 1922, a decade after Fort Worth established itself as the grain capital of the south, Fort Worth archivist Gaby Kienitz told WFAA.
Construction began in March 1923 and "initiated the trend toward massive capacity facilities and the elimination of small facilities," Kienitz added.
George Martinez remembers pulling cotton dust out of his childhood home's air ducts during the 1960s. He still lives across the street from the 100-foot-tall silos in Worth Heights.
"That's my backyard shade," he joked. "When the sun comes up, I don't need a tree. That is my shade."
He and other neighbors struggle to remember when the complex was abandoned, though it likely fell quiet in the 1980s or 1990s.
In the decades since the facility has become a haven for criminal activity. Martinez says he sometimes hears gunshots echoing inside the silos.
"Kids are going in there at 3 or 4 a.m., making noise and yelling," he said. "They'll come in at 4 a.m. shooting their guns. They think they're having fun and we don't know if it's for real or not."
Police have been called to the address at least 367 times since 2006, a code compliance officer told the Building Standards Commission in March. The city recorded 59 citizen complaints about the property in the same time frame.
In 2016, a 17-year-old girl from Haltom City fell down a grain shoot inside the complex and died.
Despite the city's attempts to seal the building, people who are homeless and urban explorers still break in. One man repeatedly climbed to the top of the silos and sang Sweet Caroline over the neighborhood, Martinez told WFAA.
The city removed stairwells inside the building to try and prevent people from climbing to dangerous heights. Code officers also welded metal planks over the entrances. Still, the facility's roof is covered in graffiti that appears fresh.
"The silos at 3700 Alice Street have been a safety issue for at least 24 years," neighborhood police officer Edward Perez wrote in a letter to the commission. He said an officer was injured inside the silos during a foot pursuit.
Fires also frequently burn inside the complex, including one this week. During each incident, firefighters must determine whether there's good reason to enter the complex and trek through needles or human waste to reach the flames.
A FWFD spokesperson said the responding crew elected to fight Wednesday's fire from outside the silos. They sprayed water through openings in the building, then monitored as the flames burned out on their own.
"I think the city would like to see them gone, too," Bargas told WFAA. "I'm hopeful."
The Buildings Standard Commission took steps to demolish the facility in 2016, but the process proved too expensive. Now, the city has designated Worth Heights for investment through a neighborhood improvement program.
There is a new appetite for the job, despite its cost.
"If they're going to knock it down, knock it down," Martinez said. "Don't wait another 100 years, because that building is coming down by itself."