London Hotel’s Future Up for Discussion
Monday, May 27, 2013 @ 4:01 AM
Prince George, B.C.- RCMP in Prince George will be meeting with the City of Prince George’s Bylaw services and the owner of the London Hotel on Third Avenue to figure out what can be done about the property.
Prince George RCP say that since the fall of 2008, the Hotel has been the location of more than 150 police files. The most recent activity involved the execution of a search warrant on a suspected drug house inside the London Hotel on Friday evening.
Once inside the apartment in the Hotel, police arrested two adult females and an adult ale, . The two females were found to be in possession of controlled substances. While dealing with the two females, two males arrived on scene, one was arrested and found to be in possession of about $1700 dollars worth of crack cocaine. The second male ran from police but was arrested a few blocks away after a brief foot chase, he too was said to be in possession of some crack cocaine.
As police continued their search of the building they encountered a male in the hallway who was high on drugs and was brandishing a hatchet. He was taken into custody and was found to be suffering from a recent stab wound in his back. He was taken to Hospital for treatment.
RCMP say the Hotel has become notorious as a location for crime downtown. Several local business owners have complained about the ongoing drug activity at the building, and police have devoted a lot of time and effort dealing with issues at this building.
Comments
Raze it to the ground best solution ……
Sounds like a great place for Rob Ford.
add some of the police costs to the property taxes of the owner that is obviously not too picky when it comes to finding renters. If it starts costing him money, I think he would smarten up a bit……
Of course this probably requires an amendment to the City bylaws, but why not make it an additional cost to those chronic offenders. I don’t see the downside. Don’t want to pay it, then the City can take the building. Problem solved.
Last time I checked the City was looking for ways to drum up some more cash……haha.
We desparately need another empty lot on 3rd avenue.
We still have not built anything on the the grocery store property across the street.
Nice birches though. I make it a point to go downtown as often as I can to talk to them and encourage them to keep on converting carbon dioxide into oxygen.
;-)
Tearing down the building won’t solve the drug and associated crime issues.
Apartment residents found to be in possession of crack cocaine, brandishing a hatchet, in hallway high on drugs …. the RCMP surely have enough evidence to have the City shut down the hotel on the bases of health & safety concerns of residents and surrounding businesses due to frequent fires, unpredictable behaviors of residents high on drugs and finding tenants in possession of illegal drugs. IMHO the Hotel owner should assume responsibility and resolve these issues within a time frame determined by the City and RCMP or face stiff penalties including loss of property.
Call the demolition crews. Tearing the building down may not solve the crime issues, but having a dedicated crime hot spot isn’t helping anything either. We might as well be promoting the activities that go on there.
I don’t mind DNHeys suggestion to make the owner responsible, but I don’t think there’s much they can do.
You are right axman, problems will just be moved elsewhere.
Canada hotel
MacDonald hotel
Europe hotel
Columbus Hotel
all gone but the issues remain.
Slum lords just want to make a buck too. Sure it many be off human squalor and misery, but in the end a dollar is a dollar! I say let it go, there is no way we should be stifling, or regulating, free enterprise :)
I think slum lords in this city should unite and “invest” some of their profits into select candidate campaigns in the next civic election! It’s what smart business people do these days don’t you know. *sarcasm*
The landlord/owner of this property is Living Options realty out of Vancouver.
http://www.livingoptions.ca/properties.html
from their website :
“Call Philip Danyluk at 604-777-5005 for more information about managing your muti-family building or single family unit.”
NO THANK YOU PHIL!
Just a few years ago the London Hotel was the best example of the 1910 hotels that were built in the early days of Pg and it is part of PG history. About ten years ago a young man from Vancouver bought to make it into a small boutique hotel or student housing. But he said he was having nothing but trouble with the City as they would not give him permits to convert it to the original style. He was told that the people living in the hotel had to have some place to live and he was forcing them out so he gave up and sold it.
The London Hotel is just the name of the building. It does not operate as a hotel.
There is a business downstairs which is trying to make a go of it.
Remember, the ideal that the City would like to see is exactly this configuration – retail on the ground floor and residential upstairs.
I do not know what “quality” the landlord has brought the building up to. I had a tour of it many years ago when the upstairs was unoccupied and in a slow state of conversion. It has some nice timber in there that would actually make a great loft.
It is not the building that is at fault, it is the landlord and tenants.
If one gets rid of all the so-called “substandard” buildings and put ne buildings renting at $35/sf in, you will have empty buildings or, if people are smart, they wll not build anything and plant some slow grwoing trees since they will have a long time to grow before anyone is interested in those lots.
It has been some 30 years now that CIBC has not built on the empty lot, Bank of Montreal (UNBC now), the City where the Europe was ….
And nothing is on the Columbus property, and a parking lot went up on 2 of the 3 lots where B&B music stood … and Rick’s has not built anything on there lot … and the rest of George St. is virtually dead as well.
The drug trade will not disappear … it will simply relocate ….. maybe to a neighbourhood near you … ;-)
Has anyone taken an inventor of the flop houses in this City lately?
“inventory” … sticky keys :-(
There are a number of deadbeat squatters that have moved a little further west a couple of years ago and moved into a once vibrant building on Patricia Blvd:P
Not to worry though there already is a plan afoot to remove them, but it will be a year or so to get it done. First step was the new resident manager who is just now getting the lay of the land.
gus: “It is not the building that is at fault, it is the landlord and tenants.”
Maybe, but it’s virtually impossible to evict a tenant once they are in, thanks to our tenancy laws. The Landlord has to take responsibility too, but maybe the tenants he/she has are the only ones they could get. It’s a catch-22.
So we raze all building that we can’t evict people from …. LOL …..
JB …. don’t counter with ecuses and unresonable consequences, that is not helpful at all … just encourage people at City Hall to be as lazy as you are about being part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
“maybe the tenants he/she has are the only ones they could get”
So if the only tenants they could get are prostitutes and they hang a sign out the window to solicit business ……
It is called aiding and abetting …. I know in California, if the landlord does not evict if there is proof of drug dealing going on, the landlord can be charged …… Maybe someone knows what the situation is in BC.
There is some sort of downtown joint taskforce with the City and the RCMP and social workers involved ….. so if this has been on their radar, the same as the arrests of fireman in an alleged theft ring, then they need to do something about it other than effectively burning the place down.
From the residential tenancy act:
Landlord’s notice: cause
47 (1) A landlord may end a tenancy by giving notice to end the tenancy if one or more of the following applies:
(e) the tenant or a person permitted on the residential property by the tenant has engaged in illegal activity that
(i) has caused or is likely to cause damage to the landlord’s property,
(ii) has adversely affected or is likely to adversely affect the quiet enjoyment, security, safety or physical well-being of another occupant of the residential property, or
(iii) has jeopardized or is likely to jeopardize a lawful right or interest of another occupant or the landlord;
Very similar to the wording in California.
Where is the local person for taking care of this building? Perhaps we need a bylaw to require one if we do not.
Look gus, unlike you, I don’t pretend to have all the answers.
The (anonymous) comment section of this site is no more than graffiti on a bathroom stall in terms of effecting meaningful change. You might fare better by keeping your sanctimony to yourself.
BTW, if a one month notice is given for the above reason, and the tenant does not make an application for a dispute resolution within 10 days of receipt, then the tenant must vacate as stated in the notice.
So, who is going to dispute in writing??
But you do pretend to have the answers JB …. your answer in this case was due to the laws of the province … specifically the tenancy act.
I simply did not accept that answer for the same reason that I do not accept the answer tht our bylaws are too strict, city hall is anti business ……
No …. the businesses that are competently run do okay and know that it would be more difficult to do business in larger cities … the businesses which are run by neophytes who do not know any better are also those which tend to fail for many other reasons …. but hey, many of them will blame others…
My suggestion is it is because of the landlords ….. and the tenants, not the building’s fault …..
So, I have done 5 minutes of re-looking up the tenancy act and come up with a bit of fact ….. so …. solution … if landlords are newbies, then they should get some help from the police, the city, the province, their landlords’ association, the cahmber of commerce ….. all organizations that can help those organization too small to afford the little bit of hand holding that is needed.
BTW, if the building is razed due to illegal activiy …. the drug dealers have won, big time!!!
BTW … I sure hope that looking up a simple act is not pretending …. there is no pretense …. I do not have the answer, I ask, even on here……
So here I am, I do notknow something and maybe someone else knows.
Has the RCMP group which is fighting drug crime in this city and this province have the ability to sit down with the landlord, in the case of the landlord not also being a dealer, to help them evict tenance who are known to deal drugs ……
Where the heck is this building? Does it go under a different name? I lived in PG and I am NOT familiar with this building.
I do know it’s on 3rd ave somewhere…. but that’s all I know….
Hey, pg66,
your post was very interesting, are you able to elaborate a bit?
If the owner of the building was not allowed to turn the London into student housing, how were they allowed to have residential occupancy on the 2nd floor and 2 retail stores on the main ?
It seems like you have your facts misconstrued. Can you shine some light on the topic ?
Hmmmm, wasn’t the accusation on Matters, was he bradished a axe, he was just shot dead. Heck he served in the Canadian Milatary.
The London Hotel is right next to 54 North.
He said that he was unable to get rid of the type of tenant that was in the building before he bought it. Plus when he went to renovate he kept having to fight City Hall to make it the type of building that would draw in higher class tenants.
Talk, talk, talk. Can’t you people wait until the next municipal election to see what the new candidates will promise to do if they are elected, and what they will say to ensure a vibrant and well meaning downtown revitalization? I can. I don’t go downtown. ‘Cept for Northern Hardware.
Gus – you need to find a hobby!
I have an immense interest in buildings for some strange reason including heritage buildings of which the LondonHotel is one.
It was my education as well as my work for many year, and now has become one of my several hobies.
I have far too many hobbies, ontherun. Quit running and enjoy some hobbies too. ;-)
I doubt the use of the building is a zoning limitation since downtown allows virtually any zones and multiple uses in the same building.
Having been inside the building, I am relatively sure it is a building code matter, especially if the owner is not interested in spending too much money.
Number of exits, distance to exits and fire separations between downstairs and upstairs uses are likely the main issues.
Hey, ontherun and JB …. I know this stuff, honest…. I am not pretending …. ;-)
Maybe our city should buy this hotel. Make it like the PG Hotel. That is working out well.
If you don’t like Gus’s posts, don’t read them. Gus and other posters with insight into a topic or the time, resources and willingness to do research and share it is what makes this site great.
Please stop the personal attacks – they are what detracts from the site.
Right on Jales4.
The London Hotel is not the only place the RCMP should be looking into. The old Ranch Motel, have the police busy, its a mess, The Bylaw office has be called many times they do nothing, sheets hanging on the windows, broken windows ,windows boarded up. Also a slum landlord from Vancouver.Its a nice site to see when you drive into town on Victoria ST. How can we take pride in our City when this is allowed to go on. Why are all these types of people coming here??Could it be all the wonderful services we provide??We need to start to ask WHY??
The City should buy the hotel out and move all of the residents to the Haldi Road area. Karma is a bitch.
Aw, crap. Just when I was enjoying a jb free article (since 12:47 PM)along comes summit with a stupid idea.
I was enjoying a jb (Joeboy) free article myself until 10:03 p.m. Oh well…
The City could very well buy the London Hotel , and the Tax Payers could own another vacant lot.
Hey Bitter, interesting point ! What makes it more interesting is that the “Ranch” and the London are owned by the same person.
It only takes a few (in this case 1) bad apples hey?
IlovePG,so do I but are you sure these dumps are owned by the same person?? What is wrong with us in this City that we let slum landlords get rich and help destroy our City, did all the people with some GUTS leave town?
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