Theatre demo to cost city 500K
News
Posted By HEATHER RIVERS, SENTINEL-REVIEW
Updated 1 month ago
The City of Woodstock has accepted a $492,000 bid for the demolition of the Capitol Theatre after tenders closed Thursday afternoon.
The winning bid came from Arts Crushing and Recycling Inc. of London.
City engineer David Creery said the four bids ranged from $492,000 plus HST to $595,000 plus HST.
The city is undertaking the demolition at its own cost because the owner of the building, 1723719 Ontario Inc., has told the city it doesn't have the financial ability to pay for the required demolition.
Creery said, under the Ontario Building Code, the city is required to take action when a building is determined to be unsafe.
"We have no other alternative than to take action to bring the building to compliance," he said, "which in this case is demolition."
The city will try to recoup their costs through property taxes by placing a lien on the property.
"They'll owe that amount of money," he said.
If the money is not repaid, the city has the option to sell the vacant land, he said. But Creery acknowledged the cost of the work is likely to exceed the value of the vacant land, despite its downtown location.
While the city is pushing to begin work on the project as soon as possible, no date has yet been set for demolition to begin.
The eight-week project will involve four weeks of asbestos removal prior to four weeks of actual demolition.
The order for the demolition was issued on June 24 by chief building official Craig Wallace after Woodstock police noticed, during an unrelated investigation, that the roof of the theatre had collapsed.
The Capitol Theatre's neighbour on the right side is a vacant building that formerly housed Stubbe's Countrywide Furniture.
The building to the left is occupied by Dee Light's Bakery, which is moving its operations to the kitchen at Dundas United Church for the duration of the demolition.
hrivers@bowesnet.com
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