Former biker clubhouse about to be demolished after fire

The former biker clubhouse on Perry St. gutted by fire is finally going to be demolished.

On Monday, a demolition firm is expected to raze what’s left of the house at the corner of Perry and Park streets.

Fire ravaged the former clubhouse on March 25. City police deemed it arson.

Although the city quickly issued demolition orders, the charred building stood while the seller wrangled with the insurance company.

But a settlement has finally come and the property has sold as a building lot.

“The seller is thrilled,” said Pat Mahoney, the Re/Max realtor who’d listed the house just before the fire. “It’s been a long haul.”

Mahoney had a buyer, just before the arson happened: The sale was set to close when the house burned down.

For weeks, it wasn’t clear whether insurance would pay for the house to be rebuilt (in which case the property might’ve still changed hands).

When the insurance company refused to pay for the house to be rebuilt, the buyer walked away from the deal.

Mahoney said the seller then relisted the property as a building lot – and it sold. Now the seller will have the house demolished with money from the insurance claim.

Demolition should take just one day, Mahoney said. Then the site will be cleaned up, and the buyer can apply for a building permit.

Mahoney said the buyer is a local person who plans to run a business in the ground floor and have an apartment above.

The city says the house must be built on the exact same footprint as the former biker clubhouse.

The house was once home to a biker club, the Vagos (which patched over to the Outlaws in 2015).

At the time that it burned, it was owned by Nancy Foote of Campbellford, the common-law spouse of long-time Peterborough biker Bob Pammett who had set up the Vagos at the clubhouse several years ago.

City police are investigating the fire as an arson but there have been no arrests.