Organizations using former Qualicum elementary school receive eviction notice

Tenants of a former elementary school in Qualicum Beach, B.C., tell Global News that they have been given a three-month eviction notice.

Qualicum Commons is home to many organizations, including Coast Karma Academy, Bright Star Montessori and a daycare, to name a few.

The school district vacated the former Qualicum Beach Elementary School at the end of the 2014 school year and community groups took over the following September.

Over the last 10 years, the school district has toyed with the idea of shutting down the building multiple times, but the town council announced its decision this week, saying building repair costs are becoming too high.

“The Town understands the value of the Qualicum Commons to the community and came into an Agreement last June to help keep the building open for a one-year period,” council said in a statement posted online.

“The goal of this Agreement was to allow the tenants to continue providing important community services, while the Town undertook due diligence to understand the state of the building and associated cost implications.”

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However, the council said that there have been challenges with deteriorating conditions in the past year, including three floods, HVAC exchange units failing and roof, windows, doors, plumbing, electrical and fire suppression systems.

Volunteers who oversee community groups in the region are trying to save the building.

“It’s 32,000 square feet of space,” Adam Walker, an Oceanside Commons Society board member, said.

“The side of the building over there was built in 2001. So a lot of this building isn’t even that old. The idea that we’re going to turn down 32,000 square feet of fully-occupied space, with no plan on where these folks are supposed to go, it just doesn’t make sense.”

The lease agreement ends on June 30.

Volunteers have launched a petition to keep the building in operation.

In a statement on Friday, Qualicum Beach Mayor Teunis Westbroek said that “the building is owned by School District 69 and the Town cannot currently purchase it because it’s not for sale, we simply can’t consider it financially viable or responsible to invest millions of dollars into the building.

“We’ve had communication with the tenants over the past year, and all were made aware from the outset that their leases were for a one-year term, ending June 30, 2026. We do hope for a solution to come forward. The Save the Commons Society or another organization could approach the School District 69, the owner and landlord of this property, to explore entering into a lease agreement, and if the opportunity arose for the Town to purchase the property, then we would reassess.”