A West Kelowna company will demolish a downtown Castlegar building that sits on land earmarked for a housing development. City council agreed Monday to award a contract to remove the Eremenko building to Roc Doc Ventures Ltd. for $825,000 plus taxes.
The building at 310 Columbia Avenue was built in 1948 and for decades was home to a series of department stores, but it has long been vacant. An addition built in 1968 to the west at 1224 3rd Street was formerly a shoe store.
The city bought the buildings in 2021 with plans to redevelop the site. Originally the proposal called for a mixed-use project incorporating the Kootenay Gallery. However, the gallery has since acquired the former Woods night club across the street.
In May, council directed staff to issue a request for proposals for hazardous materials removal and demolition. The city received four submissions. The other three were from companies in Genelle, Burnaby, and Edmonton. Council heard this week that all four submissions met the mandatory requirements, but when city staff scored them on a variety of criteria, the Roc Doc proposal came out on top.
“The evaluation committee determined that Roc Doc Ventures submitted a proposal that addresses the goals and objectives of the project, including a high level of safety certifications, corporate experience in hazardous materials abatement and building demolition, and an abatement and demolition plan that showed a good level of understanding of the project and possible risks,” a staff report read.
Project manager Anne Simonen told council work would begin soon. Removal of hazardous materials is expected to take six weeks, with demolition to follow, although Simonen said it’s hard to say exactly how long that phase will take. “I think we’d be seeing the building down before the spring, based on the schedule they provided,” she said.
In a subsequent news release, the city said that while demolition is underway, sidewalks on Columbia Avenue and 3rd Street adjacent to the site will be closed, traffic will be temporarily affected on 3rd Street and Wood Street Lane, and noise is expected Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The city said it would work with the contractor to ensure businesses and residents in the neighbourhood are kept in the loop about the work and its impacts.
Because the project wasn’t in the city’s financial plan, council had to approve some budgetary shuffling. The work will be paid for through a combination of different funds and reserves.
It’s the second major demolition contract recently awarded in Castlegar, following one for the Pioneer Arena, which is now being torn down to make way for housing and medical offices.
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