With several city-owned buildings having already been levelled in the south district of Downtown Sudbury, the next on the list is slated to be 352-362 Elgin St.
In municipal tender documents, it’s stipulated that pre-demolition work to tear down the 15,000-square-foot building should commence on Nov. 18 and be completed within 15 weeks.
The bid closing date is Oct. 31.
City council members voted unanimously in June to purchase the residential building at a cost of $1 million.
“That building, as we know, is completely decrepit,” Mayor Paul Lefebvre explained at the time. “It is unsafe even for our staff to get into, and EMS to get into, and it’s at a point of no return. It’s boarded up and the owner wanted to sell it.”
The structure, he added, is “a liability on so many levels, we needed to act on it ... quickly.”
The city deemed the irregularly shaped building encompassing 352-362 Elgin St. unfit for occupancy last year, less than a year after investor Yinan Xia reported buying it for $2.25 million.
It’s the latest in a series of city-owned buildings the city is in the process of tearing down in the south district of Downtown Sudbury to make way for a proposed $225-million arena/events centre project, plus private ancillary services.
Some notable buildings to have come down already include the old Ledo Hotel, the Brûlerie Old Rock Roastery coffee venue on Minto Street and the nearby Doghouse Sports Bar and Eatery on Romanet Lane.
Alexandria's Restaurant and Lounge, the Golden Grain Bakery and the Sudbury Multicultural-Folk Arts Association were also demolished after being purchased by the city.
While these property owners agreed to sell to the city, the lone holdout has been the owners of Wacky Wings, which the city recently expropriated. It remains unclear when that building will come down, though the city has allowed them to continue operating as a restaurant until at least March.
To date, the city has spent approximately $20.76 million on the $225-million events centre project, including $4.38 million on the since-cancelled Kingsway Entertainment District (the current project’s precursor) and $16.3 million on land acquisition and demolition costs.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.