Holston Habitat for Humanity utilizes salvaged building materials from Burlington Park

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Deconstruction is underway at the Burlington Park complex as developers work to convert the property into nearly 800 rental units . As the deconstruction process began, the developers realized they had usable building materials.

"We figured it would be a pity to see it all go to a landfill," said Yuri Miller, President and CEO of Excimia, a real estate development group overseeing the project. "We were looking for a local organization that could see a future use for the materials."

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During Miller's search for that local organization, he was connected with Holston Habitat for Humanity, who welcomed the opportunity to salvage some of the materials.

"Holston Habitat has been removing perfectly good building materials such as all kinds of lumber, tile, flooring, windows, doors, countertops, cabinets," said Lara Kelly, Executive Director of Holston Habitat for Humanity.

Kelly told News Channel 11 that Holston Habitat has put some of the materials straight to use and sold others to help raise money that will be put toward new homes.

In the last month, the organization expanded its operation to cover Unicoi County to help with the Hurricane Helene recovery. Kelly said the salvaged materials have helped impact the organization's relief efforts.

"We anticipate hitting almost $75,000 in funds raised from the materials in this building," Kelly said. "Maybe we'll exceed it, but all of that money is going right back into our community to help flood survivors and help other Habitat homes."

Kelly said the materials are already making a difference in their current projects.

"When we have materials on hand, like framing lumber, when we have active homes that we're trying to build for local families, it means we can get started on our projects even faster," Kelly said. "So we've got bundles and bundles of two-by-fours, two-by-sixes that we're using right now to frame houses up in Bristol."

Miller said he found himself impressed by the work the organization was able to do within the building.

"I was most impressed by how Habitat was able to dismantle and salvage a majority of almost 40 townhome units," said Miller. "They put together a crew and it was a ton of lumber that was in perfectly good condition, and they were able to get a crew involved to take it down in a very short amount of time and repurpose it."

Both Miller and Kelly said they're excited to see the total impact that comes from the reused materials.

"The best thing about starting a project like this for us and my partners is the ability to give back to the community," said Miller.

"I hope to the community that when a new business comes into town, it's not always bad news," Kelly said. " And we see that they're already giving back before they've even started taking down the building. So I think that's really noteworthy."

Miller said he hopes to have the building cleared out in the next few weeks and completely demolished by January.