Two buildings in Central Frederick will no longer be inconveniencing neighbours after a boarded-up business and its adjoining house at the corner of Samuel and Brubacher streets were torn down last week.
The two buildings, which had been in existence for over 100 years but sat vacant and boarded up for around 20 years, earned the nickname the “Inconvenience Store” among locals.
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A city official told Global News this past winter that the buildings’ owners had kept up on property taxes but had failed to maintain the structures.
“Residents over the years have always wanted to see vacant buildings repaired, demolished, action taken,” Jennifer Hassum, a spokesperson for the City of Kitchener, said in February.
She explained that new regulations were introduced in 2016 that required owners of vacant buildings to maintain a certain level of upkeep on the structures.
The city had brought in someone to do repairs, but the consultant hired advised the city to get an engineer’s report as there were concerns over whether the buildings, one of which was a former convenience store, were structurally sound.
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A report received in December recommended the buildings be torn down.
The city then tendered out the contract. The structures were taken down last week at a cost of $43,900.
The owners of the building will have to foot the bill, and if they choose not to settle up, it will be added to their property taxes.
Once all of the remnants of the home are taken away, area residents will be left with a field of grass at the corner of Samuel and Brubacher streets.
While many welcome the change, John Cunningham, who has lived across the street, is not one of them.
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“The number of people, neighbours who would say: ‘Finally, progress’ or ‘At last’ or whatever and were genuinely happy and were shocked that I was not,” he said.
Cunningham had tried to get monument status applied to the buildings as he felt they were a piece of the city’s history.
“We have so little history being a small city, which we have torn great hunks out of already,” he explained. “There’s not much to preserve.”
Global News has contacted the owners of the property via email but has not received a response as of publish time.
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