Berrien County has received bids for the demolition of the former Modern Plastics building in Benton Harbor, but they’re going to require some review.

Speaking to colleagues Thursday, Berrien County Commissioner Jon Hinkelman said the county finance committee opened the bids this week.

“There were nine bids on the demolition of Modern Plastics,” Hinkelman said. “There is a $2.2 million deviation between those bids, and so it’s large. So we gave that back to Community Development and the land bank. They will look those over to make sure, accept of course the lowest bid that meets the specs. But there is a large deviation.”

The county has secured $2.6 million to pay for the demolition of the building at 489 North Shore Drive. The funds came from the Michigan Land Bank Authority.

Berrien County last year sold the site to Harbor Shores, but the county is still working to clean it up. Harbor Shores told us last year it’s reviewing options for development of the property.

Once a review of the bids for demolition  is done, the finance committee will come back to the full county board of commissioners with a recommendation on which contract to approve.