Hastings business owners dealing with displacement after downtown building collapse

HASTINGS, Neb. – After sitting vacant in downtown Hastings for more than two years, the building that partially collapsed last month has been demolished, but it's still causing hardships for the business next door. 

Vicki and Mike Neiman are the owners of South Central Taekwondo in downtown Hastings and thought this setback wouldn’t last long. 

"We'll just cancel classes for a couple days and be back in on Monday." said Vicki Neiman.

Little did the Neimans know, it would be much longer than that. 

Their taekwondo studio is next door to a condemned building that suffered a partial collapse on Sept. 18.

The cause of the collapse remains unknown.

The collapsed building had been vacant since March 2022 after it was damaged from a fire from the old Bert’s Pharmacy building, which has since been torn down.

City officials told the Neimans after the collapse that their building was being condemned due to safety concerns.

The collapse has displaced them from their business, and they say that's led to a steep decline in memberships.

"The teen and adult (age) has declined, there's just some that haven't come back," said Neiman. "We have the little dragons, which are the four, five, and six year olds and it's down about a third, if not more."

On Tuesday afternoon, just over a month after the collapse, a demolition company knocked down the rest of the building.

But, the Neiman’s believe this whole situation could’ve been avoided in the first place.

"We would've liked to seen something done... anything at this point," said Neiman. "You could see bricks constantly falling out of that southeast corner, every day there were more bricks."

With the building now fully knocked down as of Tuesday, and crews still working on hauling away the remaining debris, city officials are aiming to reopen the affected area as quick as possible.

"The city is ready to get people back in their building as quick as possible, remove those barricades, and open up those streets," said Hastings Development Services Director Chad Bunger. "We don't want those areas closed down, those businesses out of their homes more than anybody else."

For the past three weeks, South Central Taekwondo has found a new home at the new Revive Inc. substance abuse treatment center which is still being remodeled.

The Neimans are able to hold their martial arts classes in their own room to keep their business afloat away from home base.

Vicki says they’re grateful for the non-profit’s generosity, and is also using this experience to teach her students a valuable lesson.

"I'm trying to get across to the kids that stuff in life happens, and you have to have some resiliency," said Neiman. "You have to be able to come back from something that wasn't good, and still maintain your life."

The timeline on when the Neiman’s and their students can move back downtown is still murky as Vicki says she’s been told several different lengths of time.

Full deconstruction and clean up on the property is expected to be completed by the end of next week.