McKenzie Seeds building owner misses deadline to submit remediation plan to City of Brandon
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/09/2017 (3026 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The City of Brandon is looking into its legal options after the owner of the historic McKenzie Seeds building failed to submit a remediation plan by the end of the business day on Friday.
As the clock rolled around to 5 p.m., the city’s manager of development services, Jacqueline East, said she was disappointed to realize that B.C.-based Resland Development Group would not make the deadline.
“These months leading up to now, they have been active. They’ve been claiming that they’re going to do the work and it’s just been getting worse and worse,” East said.
Resland visited the site last week, at which time city and provincial officials were also present to offer their insights.
Coming out of these meetings, East said they were left convinced that Resland would submit the required remediation plan by the Friday deadline.
“Now we’re into a territory where we’re going to be infringing on some property rights using the authority the municipality has to do that,” East said, adding that until her department connects with legal counsel, it would be premature to say what action could be taken.
The structural integrity of the building, located at 20 Ninth St. in downtown Brandon, was called into question earlier this month when a portion of its cornice broke off.
This prompted an emergency closure of the unit block of Ninth Street, with the roadway expected to remain closed until such time as the municipality’s concerns are put to rest.
The McKenzie Seeds building opened in 1911 and was in operation for more than 95 years before the company moved to its new building at 1000 Parker Blvd. in 2009.
Resland had ambitious plans to renovate the building into residential space, dubbed McKenzie Towers. Originally, plans called for a 93-condo project.
The project had considerable delays, and ultimately there was not enough interest from prospective buyers. The company switched its focus to rental units, but that failed to get off the ground.
It is the owner’s responsibility to maintain the building, which is a provincially designated historic site.
East said the McKenzie Seeds building offers a story that, so far, parallels that of another historic downtown Brandon building: the Brown Block.
Located on the 100 block of 10th Street, a portion of the Brown Block collapsed in 2011, prompting the city to close a portion of the street.
The building’s owner failed to comply with deadlines and the structure was eventually demolished.
Even so, given the scale of the McKenzie Seeds building, this might be a more complex matter, East said.
“This is a much bigger — much, much bigger — and more severe issue than the Brown Block was.”
» tclarke@brandonsun.com, with files from Jillian Austin
» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB