
Demotion work underway at the Northbridge Hotel in Kamloops. (Photo via North Shore Business Improvement Association)
Demolition work on the Northbridge Hotel in Kamloops has resumed after several months.
North Shore Business Improvement Association Executive Director Jeremy Heighton says its a really good day for that part of Kamloops.
“Very positive for the community. Its just another step forward as we continue to revitalize the corridor,” he told Radio NL.
“I think the momentum and the enthusiasm we have seen and created on the North Shore will continue for the next three to five years. It’s a really good day for us. It’s a really good symbolic example of moving forward in our community.”
Demolition work began in March of last year, with an expected completion date in September. Work had to be delayed so Telus could move a number of antennas that were on the roof of the building at 377 Tranquille to the new Active Care building at 501 Tranquille Road.
“We knew it was up there. There was talk with Telus early on with a different division in the city about potentially finding a temporary solution,” Ryan Maalerud, the City’s former Capital Services Supervisor told Radio NL in November. “I don’t have information on why that didn’t work out.”
“The original game plan was a temporary tower network while they worked on a permanent solution. Unfortunately, during the abatement phase, conversations with Telus changed somewhat, so now we’re stuck in this waiting game a little bit.”
Maalerud also told Radio NL that the delays won’t cost Kamloops taxpayers anything as Telus picked up the costs of relocating those antennas.
“The abatement phase came in right on budget and on schedule,” Maalerud said. “We do have a fixed price with our demolition contractors [Clearview Demolitions] so once we can get the Telus situation rectified, they’ll be back on site. I don’t anticipate any additional costs [beyond the $2.6 million budget for the demolition work.]”
The City bought the hotel for $7.1 million in October 2021, with plans to redevelop the building into market housing, which is expected to happen “at a future date.”
Also included in that deal was the adjacent property at 346 Campbell Avenue, which BC Housing is buying for $3.8 million. BC Housing plans to construct a six-storey, 80-unit affordable housing building.
“The city got criticized for stepping in and buying the property but the reality was that a major move needed to happen in that central corridor, in that sort of 400-block,” Heighton said. “The city’s move, I think, really signalled to a lot of the community that we were serious about moving forward on revitalization.”
“Now that this property is coming down, it is is another massive leap forward for the community.”
Its not clear when the demolition work will be done, but Heighton expects it will be a slow process.
“I think the Telus towers sort of threw bit of a curve ball mostly because they were EComm towers that were actually required for emergency services and it had to be triangulated. There was a bunch of things that had to happen,” Heighton said.
“Now that those are transplanted and now that we’ve got a crew in, I think we’ll see the rest of the project probably move forward fairly rapidly.”