Kelowna’s old cop shop to be torn down starting in late October

After sitting dormant for more than a year, the old Kelowna RCMP detachment on Doyle Avenue is starting to show its age, with demolition set to start later this month.

Built in the early 1970s with a few additions down the line, the building eventually became too small for one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada.

“It will actually be a prescribed demolition procedure, which will entail the use of specialty excavators, which will kind of slowly and methodically eat away at the building,” said city project manager Scott Bushell. “We will use an excavator, which is a high-reach or local-reach excavator with a chomping-like attachment, likely starting at the northeast corner and working their way to the southwest corner of the building.”

Once the building is torn down, you’ll be able to walk from Doyle Avenue to the Arts Centre.

“The site will rough-graded and a proposed path for the art-walk connection will be roughed out once the building is removed,” Bushell said.

It’s all part of Kelowna’s plan to rejuvenate that part of the city — called the Civic Precinct Plan.

The RCMP site, estimated to be worth more than $2.5 million, is zoned to allow a condo building up to 12 storeys high. But the city wants to hold on to ownership of the land and lease it out to a developer.

Other parts of the plan include the demolition of the community theatre to replace it with a new arts centre, as well as the demolition of the memorial arena, but those projects are another 10 to 25 years down the road.

Demolition of the RCMP detachment will begin late October and is estimated to take about 30 days to complete.