The iconic blue, cornerside building at 100 3rd St. NE had its wooden frame additions on the backside of the building demolished Wednesday morning. The original brick structure built in 1910 is scheduled to be demolished during the first week in December.

The demolition is being completed by Park Construction, the same demolition team working on Phase MI-6 of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project.

“For the big block structure, we need our hammer before we can take that down,” said Trent Rahn, superintendent of the demolition crew. A hammer is a special hydraulic attachment for excavators that makes breaking down brick and hard surfaces possible.

The 114 year old building is two stories high with a basement level. The main level is 1,920 square feet and has typically been operated by small businesses while the upstairs level housed three efficiency apartments.

An excavator demolishes the wooden framed back end of the property at 100 3rd St. NE.

The apartments were vacated before the City of Minot took ownership of the property as stipulated in the agreement with the previous owners, Rod and Kathy Jo Halvorson.

According to Minot Public Works plumbing inspection documents, some of the local businesses that operated out of the building throughout the years were Gene’s Barber Shop, starting in 1960; the Corner Bar, starting in 1975; and the Ice Box, starting in 1996.

After the Ice Box closed, the property was sold to the Halvorsons, who turned the property into the Nok Back Tavern. The tavern held its grand opening in late June of 2021.

Three years later, in spring of this year, the Minot City Council voted to purchase the building and its parking lot from the Halvorsons on May 6.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve bought out all the properties around the Nok Back, to the point where they were the last ones there,” said Public Works Utilities Director Jason Sorenson. Most of the surrounding properties were purchased by the city due to the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project phases that would impact the properties.

Audin Rhodes/MDN The demolition of the property on 100 3rd St. NE began Wednesday, starting with the wooden framed back end of the structure.

“There weren’t necessarily any flood project features that were going to be directly on top of the Nok Back property,” Sorenson said. “But there were a lot of things that we needed to do as part of the flood control project to make sure that the Nok Back could stay in place.”

Some of these changes would have included new driveway aprons and street reconfiguration for apartment access as well as new water and sewer infrastructure.

“We totaled up what all of that additional work was going to be for them to stay in place, and it was almost the same cost as purchasing and demoing it and then not having that property there to maintain,” Sorenson said.

The City of Minot brought this information to the Halvorsons regarding the work that would need to occur for the building to remain.

“They approached us about buying it from them,” Sorenson said.

Once the building was acquired by the City of Minot, demolition plans were underway.

An environmental survey was conducted before demolition and there was no asbestos and no lead-based paint found on the property.