Demolition starts on portion of Westmoreland Village

Demolition of a vacant 30,000-square-foot building in the Westmoreland Village Shopping Center is under way. It will take about two to four weeks to tear down the building, remove debris and grade the area, says Gene Tullier, Catholic High School president. Hearthstone Properties, the tax-exempt corporation that supports Catholic High School, bought Westmoreland Village just before Christmas for $4.85 million. Since Hearthstone bought the land, Tullier says, there have been conversations with potential managers who would take over operations of the retail portion of Westmoreland Village. But no definitive steps have been taken yet, as Catholic High determines what would be the best long-term use for the 9.2-acre site. “We’ve just done the very initial kinds of assessment,” Tullier says. But the quick demolition of a vacant building shows that the school doesn’t want to maintain the status quo at Westmoreland. “We’re not going to just sit on the land,” Tullier says. —Timothy Boone