The Mobile Housing Board unanimously approved a $1.7 million contract Wednesday for GMR Inc. of Mobile to demolish two public housing developments on the north side of downtown Mobile.

The demolition, scheduled to begin within a week, will tear down 223 buildings on 25 acres of the A.F. Owens and Jesse Thomas public housing developments within 90 days, Andy Driscoll, GMR project manager and estimator, said Wednesday.

The board also received a $4 million grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Development to elevate 14 buildings of Orange Grove Homes and provide extra funds for the renovation, Steve Kohrman, the Housing Board's community development director, told board members Wednesday.

The buildings to be elevated are on the north end of the 42-building complex that are in the flood plain, Kohrman said.

The demolition contract is the Housing Board's first step in beginning the long anticipated HOPE VI project to revamp the area that lies next to Orange Grove Homes. The three public housing developments are contiguous and are generally referred to as the Orange Grove community.

"This has been a long time coming. We're ready to get started," Housing Board Executive Director Stevens Gregory said.

In June 2004, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the Housing Board $20 million to tear down the Owens and Thomas developments and replace them with a mixed-income community of townhouses, single-family homes and a senior citizens complex.

The HOPE VI project also includes construction of 12 single-family homes in the Church Street East historic area just north of Church Street at Washington Avenue behind the Mobile Public Library main branch.

A.F. Owens, built in 1959, has 407 units. Jesse Thomas, built in 1970, has 380 units.

Once the demolition is complete, Pennrose-Formation LLC will oversee construction of the 88-unit senior citizens complex and 87 townhouses that are part of the project. Work on the senior citizens complex is expected to start in early 2008.

Contractors who wish to serve as subcontractors on the demolition project are asked to call Don McKnight at the Housing Board at 434-2213.

Anyone who wants to work on the demolition should call Danita Arceneaux at the Clinton L. Johnson Center for Economic Development at 470-0372.