Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang
Do you have any information about the Eamon's Camp building? Is the city waiting for a proposal from an investor to pay for the restoration of the building AND the operation of a new venture, or simply for a business to say "sure, I'll open a cafe in that nicely restored heritage building."
Personally, I think that a cafe would be a slam dunk there, both for commuters and for local residents that can walk there on evenings and weekends. But I don't have a bunch of money to throw at it.  |
This is something I've been involved in. Council has set aside $500,000 to save, move and store the building (if necessary). It has also given Administration some more time to figure out what to do with the building. At first, The City put out a Request for expressions of interest in the building to private operators. It got zero response, I think mostly because of the uncertaintly about final location, but also about the condition of the building and how much would be required to put into the building to make it useful. It's only 1500 square feet, so putting a half million into restoration to run a small cafe isn't economical.
The heritage staff at the City is working on other possibilities. It may be that the City would have to put in the money to restore it before any other operator would take it on. We'll see in the next two months or so what the next steps are. This is a building the Mayor cares a lot about, and probably would not have been saved at all if it weren't for his effort.