The clock is ticking for Kensington Manor.
The City of Calgary’s priorities and finance committee has recommended demolishing the condemned apartment building in light of rising costs and risks associated with keeping the site boarded up.
The owner of the building on 10 Street N.W., stopped co-operating with the city back in January, officials said. It’s been in the city’s hands ever since, racking up an $18,000 bill every month to keep the building secure and safe.
“It’s just not feasible to remediate it,” city safety response unit coordinator Cliff De Jong said Tuesday. “There are several safety hazards associated with that building. The primary one is keeping people out. There is a risk of fire. That’s the greatest concern at this time.”
While the city would have to foot the bill for demolition, it hopes to recoup some of the costs by putting it on the owner’s property tax bill. If the owners sell the building or redevelop the site, the cost would appear on the tax bill, according to Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
City council has the final say on whether the demolition will go ahead. There is currently no estimated cost or timeline for the project.
WATCH: Should the City of Calgary demolish Kensington Manor?
De Jong would like to see work get started sooner rather than later.
“It’s a complex structure in that there is asbestos,” he said. “It has to be abated. It has to be removed.
“That takes some time, a significant amount of time. Once crews are on site, the risk of having people getting in unaccounted for, theft, vandalism, that sort of thing — that risk diminishes greatly.”
The seven-storey building was declared at risk of “imminent collapse” and evacuated in November of 2017. The 125 residents were given 15 minutes to gather their belongings and get out. The building has sat vacant since.
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