The Western Fair Association’s plans to take the wrecking ball to their administration building could face a rocky road.
The fair wants to demolish the century-old building at 316 Rectory St. to make way for a surface parking lot to handle capacity for large events at the Agriplex.
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During Tuesday’s corporate service committee meeting, Coun. Jesse Helmer expressed concern.
“It will be no surprise to anybody that I don’t like the idea of demolishing buildings to build surface parking lots. That’s true downtown, that’s true in Old East Village,” said Helmer.
“Surface parking is one of the worst uses of land in the core of the city that you can imagine. This is an area that has all kinds of great things going on, but it also has a humungous amount of surface parking.”
Helmer added the parking lots are designed to handle peak attendance, but for the majority of the time they are not used to their full capacity.
“I’m concerned that if it gets demolished and turned into a surface parking lot that redevelopment of that site will take a very, very long time,” said Helmer.
“It’s right next to a rail corridor, it will probably be a surface parking lot for decades.”
Coun. Tanya Park was also opposed to levelling the building.
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“I recognize the idea behind wanting more parking but I don’t see any need for it considering the amount of parking that’s available on site, both at the BMO and also at Western Fair, north of King Street. So, I’m not in support of getting rid of this building at this time,” said Park.
Heritage activists have expressed opposition to the demolition, calling for heritage status for the former industrial building. According to a staff report, the building dates back to 1907, but could have originally been constructed in 1882. The Western Fair Association will need to go through the London Advisory Committee on Heritage for approval.
The Western Fair Association would cover the full cost of the demolition.
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The 142,107 square foot building sits on almost three acres of city-owned land. The Western Fair bought the building in 2003, but leases the land from the city. The Western Fair Association says the facility is old, tired and inefficient to operate. They said there are substantial capital improvements that will be required in the future to keep it running.
The building also leases space to two other businesses, which would be forced to relocate.
The committee voted 4-1 in favour of receiving the staff report.
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