Developers not giving up on McKenzie Towers

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This article was published 09/03/2015 (4139 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The developers who plan to renovate downtown Brandon’s historic McKenzie Seeds building say the project is delayed but not derailed.

Resland Development Group has run into some challenges in its efforts to transform the century-old building into residential units. But the president of the B.C.-based company, Bob Carpenter, says the McKenzie Towers project remains a priority.

“We are working diligently. It’s not sitting on a shelf,” Carpenter said in a recent interview with the Brandon Sun from Langley, B.C.

The renovation plan for the building has been years in the making. Resland Development Group had originally planned to begin construction in 2011 on a 93-condo project. It faced considerable delays, and ultimately there was not enough interest from prospective buyers.

Resland decided to shift the focus from condo units to rental apartments. There are new draft plans to develop 85 apartment units in a two-phase project. Carpenter said the first phase will be the smaller five-storey building, and the second phase will be the older, seven-storey building.

“We’re working closely with Horizon Builders on a feasibility study at this time,” Carpenter said. The plan is to include a mix of two- and three-bedroom apartments.

“The really positive thing is the market of course … there’s a great market for rentals,” he said. “Everybody’s pretty enthusiastic.”

The McKenzie Seeds building opened in 1911 at 30 Ninth St., and was in operation for more than 95 years before the company moved into a new building at 1000 Parker Blvd. in 2009.

Carpenter said there have been a number of challenges presented, as the aging physical structure is not up to current building codes.

“Creating a proper exiting — ingress and egress — has been one of our major challenges because of the cost of it,” he said.

With the historic building being so unique, there is nothing for appraisers to compare it to, and financial lenders want exact costs which is not always possible.

“From Resland’s point of view, we’ve been in business about 30 years, and this is by far the most challenging project we’ve had,” he said.

Resland has gone through at least three designs over the past five years.

“We just got our final design pretty well complete …Theoretically, we’re almost ready for a building permit.”

Some work has already been done, including the interior demolition of the five-storey building. The old offices have been taken out of the seven-storey building, and surveyors were out getting exact elevations.

“It’s ready to start construction if we said ‘let’s go’ today,” Carpenter said. “Once we do pull the plug, we go fast.”

Carpenter said his personal hope is that construction could begin on the project this year, but he is hesitant to put out an official timeline.

“We’ve got a lot of people’s hopes up about this project … and we weren’t quite ready,” he said. “This time I want to be so ready that we’re sort of digging holes, demolishing … and starting construction.”

Carpenter said he is impressed by the co-operation from the City of Brandon and Province of Manitoba as they continue along on this major undertaking.

“They all want to see this done, as we do, and everybody does,” he said. “Their co-operation has been wonderful all through the time we’ve been messing with this. I’m really pleased with the co-operation.”

The topic of McKenzie Towers came up at the recent Downtown Brandon Development Forum. Municipal Government Minister Drew Caldwell said the restoration of the former McKenzie Seeds building into residential units is one project that could help transform downtown.

Mayor Rick Chrest said he is excited and optimistic that the residential project will come together.

“It’s an enormous building and it’s got enormous potential,” Chrest said. “We talk about all of the elements of revitalizing downtown Brandon and part of it is having more people down there, and consequently if you’ve got more people living down there … a lot of this is a bit of a chain reaction.”

City manager Scott Hildebrand is pleased to see there’s “some sign of life” in the project.

“We’re definitely working through the details … because I think that would be an amazing addition to the downtown,” Hildebrand said. “Especially coming off of our Brandon downtown forum, I think it would be great timing with everything else going on downtown — the Y now is up, and that new park will be coming and the A.R. McDiarmid building is up and running. Now getting more people living downtown can only be a good thing.”

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