Eau Claire demolition finally set
Removing dilapidated building after five- year delay to cost city $ 3.3M
The city will spend $ 3.3 million to demolish a vacant Eau Claire apartment tower — an expense that gobbles up more than two- thirds of the sale proceeds.
Council agreed last decade to sell the Calgary Housing Company building at 727 1st Ave. S. W. for $ 4.5 million, a price based on 2006 values and on the 10- storey concrete building being removed from the site.
The agreement with La Caille Group requires the city to pay for the demolition, which ultimately evolved into a drawn out, two- step process.
The first phase cost $ 1.67 million to remove asbestos and other hazardous materials within the walls and ceilings of the 1972 building.
Demolition of the 72- apartment public housing complex is slated to start later this month and cost just over $ 1.6 million. The process will take at least four months, according to the city.
The demolition costs, which increased 27 per cent between 2006 and 2014, according to Statistics Canada’s construction index, will erode the sale proceeds to roughly $ 1.2 million.
That money is allocated to the city’s public housing development program, which helps build affordable housing like the 88 units at nearby Louise Station.
The city now assesses the property at $ 12 million, about double that of 2006, when council first approved the sale plans and launched negotiations.
La Caille built Louise Station for the city as part of a complex arrangement that would also give the developer control over the former housing complex lands on 1st Avenue, just steps away from the Peace Bridge.
The developer was supposed to assume ownership of the land after the city demolished the building, which was originally supposed to happen within 180 days of the deal closing in 2010.
However, a citizen’s injunction application to block the agreement delayed the process.
The injunction centred on internal debates about the building’s sale price. Two city land agents had argued the tower should be factored into the value.
Senior city officials overruled the pair’s opinion, saying the land should be valued as vacant because neither the housing agency nor the developer wanted to maintain or renovate the building to conform with flood development rules.
A subsequent 2012 review of the deal found no wrongdoing, noting the housing agency had previously decided to demolish the building because of unsupportable costs to renovate the building as well as significant operational challenges.
“It was a multi- pronged project to demolish an out- dated, affordable housing project that was identified before I was elected,” said Ward 7 Coun. Druh Farrell, who was first elected in 2001.
Farrell said many residents have expressed frustration with the fiveyear delay to demolish the building.
“It’s a derelict building now that was seen as a security issue in a really beautiful part of the city,” said Farrell. “It took far too long to see it demolished. Now that it’s coming down, we can look at the next step.”
She said she was unaware of what the developer has planned for the site.
La Caille Group did not respond to the Herald’s request for an interview.