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| The burned out shell of the Angus Apartments will loom over Second Avenue West for a bit longer as demolition work ramps up this month |
The pace of demolition for one of the city's longer running eyesore structures slowed over the holidays and original hopes for a quick demolition seem to have been dashed, with Council hearing of a three month timeline at least towards completing the work on the Angus Apartments.
The structure which is the last of the original list of nuisance properties that the city had hoped to address in 2023, was the topic of some questions from City Councillor Nick Adey on Monday night.
The councillor asking towards a timeline for the work and noting that as the city now owns the property the cost is the municipalities to bear for the demolition.
"I see the scaffolding and I understand that there are issues in terms of the process that is required for that demolition and I'm just curious about what that timeline might be.
But I'm also curious about the cost, because as I understand it, that property has now been turned dover to the City and so it's on our dime and if it's going to be complex, how is that going to impact on the bottom line" -- Councillor Nick Adey
In reply, the City's Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller provided some guidance as to the path ahead for the city and how they hope to recoup the cost of that work.
"Yes there is scaffolding around Angus Apartments now, we don't like to keep thins too simple, so we like the complicated issues.
I'll start with the cost first, the cost, it won't be cheap but it is something that we anticipated and so we will look to recoup that cost when we eventually go to re-sell that property after the buildings have come down.
So it's definitely something that we would be looking to recoup and we're comfortable that we'll be able to recoup those costs with the landfill.
Towards the work ahead, Ms. Miller outlined that at least a quarter of the year ahead will be required for the full scope of the project.
"In terms of timing, we had a bit of a hiccup over the Christmas break so we'll need to ... the crews will go back and re-wrap the building, there's some material that we need to protect people from.
So we're going to do that, and then it will take about three months to get it fully completed.
So and then it will hopefully be like a butterfly from the cocoon after that" -- Corporate Administrator Rosa Miller
The full discussion can be reviewed from the City's Video Archive starting at the 18:30 mark.
An overview of the Monday Council Session can be explored here.
The journey for all of the recent Demolition work can be tracked through our Council Discussion archives.
Well, "butterfly from a cocoon" sounds charming, but why does the building need to be wrapped up and what is the material that the public needs to be protected from? In a lot of old buildings there is asbestos that needs to be professionally remediated (new Worksafe rules recently came into effect). Doing so can be costly and take time. If that is the reason, rather than speaking in code, the City should disclose the nature of the problem and what will be required. I am sure that if informed the public will be patient and understanding.
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