After a six-year legal battle, demolition started this week on a two-story former state office building on High Street.
Whether the site at 120 W. Upper Street will become apartments, as originally planned, is still to be determined, said Dudley Webb, of the Webb Companies.
“Once we take the building down, then we will evaluate the highest and best use of the property,” Webb said.
In 2018, The Webb Companies proposed razing the building to develop The Residences at South Hill, a four-story apartment complex.
The Board of Architectural Review, which must sign off on demolitions in historic districts, voted to approve the demolition in August 2018 but limited the maximum height of the new apartment building to four stories, among other design changes.
The Board of Architectural Review’s decision was appealed to the Urban County Planning Commission, which unanimously approved the demolition in October 2018.
The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit that fights for protection of historic properties, fought the demolition of the 1958 building, filing more than one lawsuit.