Royal Palm Beach prepares to raze Harvin Center

Facility began its life in 1969 as a sales building.

ROYAL PALM BEACH — After standing for nearly 50 years along Royal Palm Beach Boulevard, the Kevin M. Harvin Center is set to be demolished this summer.

Royal Palm Beach’s council in November approved tearing down the aging facility, built in 1969. The village started last month taking the steps required to do the demolition.

That includes a required pre-demolition asbestos inspection, which found some of potentially hazardous material in flashing around the roof line. That shouldn’t complicate the demolition, Village Manager Ray Liggins said, but it does require a special process to properly remove the asbestos. Exposure to asbestos fibers are tied to certain cancers and lung diseases.

“It will have to be dealt with,” he said. “It will add to the cost ... but it won’t be significant.”

According to village records, several contractors are interested in performing the demolition, which Liggins said should happen sometime in late July or early August.

The Harvin Center began its life in as the sales building for the Royal Palm Beach Colony.

Through the years it has served as a library, while also sitting vacant for two multi-year stretches.

More recently it has been the home of three tenants, including the YWCA’s Child Development Center.

The cost to maintain the building was increasing, village staff told the council in November, with Liggins calling the building “a money pit” should efforts be made to renovate.