Vancouver councillors passed a motion Wednesday that would see a 115-year-old building on the city’s Dunsmuir Street demolished — even as they chastised the property owner for letting the heritage-listed building fall into disrepair.
Built in 1909 at the corner of Dunsmuir and Richards streets, Vancouver’s Dunsmuir House has served as a grand hotel, a barracks for soldiers and a single-room occupancy (SRO) housing complex. But since 2013, it’s stood vacant.
500 Dunsmuir Street is listed in the city’s heritage registry but is not subject to heritage protection, according to a city report, which also noted a detailed cornice atop the building and its historic brick façade.
City staff recommended that the building be demolished over the risk of a “catastrophic, cascading collapse,” saying that water leakage and disrepair mean walls are no longer supported properly.
While councillors passed a staff motion approving the demolition, they did so after criticizing the building’s owner, Holborn Properties, and asking staff to look at legal avenues the city could take against property owners who do not maintain historic buildings.
“I think it appears … that the property owner has acted, in my opinion, egregiously and has allowed this building to decay,” Sarah Kirby-Yung, a councillor with the ABC slate, told the meeting.
A Holborn representative wasn’t in council chambers on Wednesday, with the developer sending a letter to council instead.
“The fact that they haven’t bothered to show up I think says a lot,” Kirby-Yung said. “But this letter provided me with no comfort or assurance whatsoever that they had considered this in any way. In fact, it’s appeared to read as a litany of excuses.”
Green Coun. Pete Fry, noted that Holborn is the same developer behind the controversial Little Mountain development, which languished for more than a decade after hundreds of social housing residents were displaced, and said there was an element of “systemic neglect” at play.
“I do have faith that we will most expeditiously remove this building and hopefully [salvage] some of these heritage pieces,” he said. “But at the end of the day, preserving life safety in our city is going to be the paramount importance.”
The motion that passed Wednesday requires Holborn to take action to demolish the property within three weeks. If it does not, the city will step in and undertake the demolition and then recover its costs.
The property, constructed of brick and wood, is across the street from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary and along a busy thoroughfare. It was built in 1909 and has a current assessed value of $8.1 million.
A city report, with many photos showing extensive damage, says the building is too far gone to be saved. It has severe water damage and “pigeon-guano inches deep in places,” with its structure severely compromised.
“The observed conditions suggest the building has not been adequately maintained since it was vacated,” the report reads.
Council explores legal options over costs
An amendment from Kirby-Yung asks city staff to look at its legal options regarding the neglect of the building and the “loss of heritage by the property owner.”
The councillor also asked city staff about bylaw amendments passed last year, which can force developers to pay a penalty of $300,000 per unit of affordable single-room accommodation that is demolished.
Staff responded that the Dunsmuir House property appeared to be in line with those bylaws, though they did not explicitly say that the penalty would be levied. The fine was first proposed in a bid to preserve affordable housing in the city.
ABC Coun. Lisa Dominato also had an amendment passed, which directs staff to look at monitoring processes and taxation options as part of a task force into unoccupied buildings, with councillors saying they wanted more options to prevent heritage buildings from going into disrepair.
“I do hope that the outcome of this … is really refining our process so that we don’t get in a situation where we have these incredibly decrepit buildings,” Fry said.
In a statement to CBC News, Lee Medd, director of asset management for Holborn, said they are committed to “acting responsibly in the best interests of public safety, the community and the future of this site.”
Medd did not say what would replace Dunsmuir House or when that may happen, but that Holborn has had “long-held intentions to redevelop this location.”
Medd said the future of 500 Dunsmuir Street will include “a broader vision for revitalization to the benefit of the community. We remain committed to this process.”