This isn't too "shocking" to me. Opinion250 is just trying to be sensational. A base bid usually just contains things that people can readily see. The extras generally are unknowns, which a contractor will do by the hour. In this case, there was the asbestos removal, which is mentioned in the story, but there was also the extra work required for body search and removal. This can easily raise the price beyond many of the early estimates.

And now the city gets another chunk of land downtown. Thats a bonus.

This is just another example of city hall's blatant diregard for taxpayer money. They should have let the owner save the taxpayer's this exorbitant charge!

The city did the right thing. The previous owner was delinquent on his taxes, I highly doubt he could have come up with the money to clean up the property. He would have stalled as long as he could, then the city would have taken over anyway.

Or the City could have left that building downtown the way it was and add to the collection of run down buildings. Money well spent in my opinion.

Hopefully the city will return this money from where it came from when and if the property sells???

What people don't get is that the owner had insurance and was in the midst of going through the process of making a claim - which everyone knows takes time. He asked for one more day and the City said no. I think the City totally jumped the gun on this one and now we, as taxpayers, have to foot the bill.

I'd like to see the receipts for that $100 thousand.

Did anybody notice the entire block covered in plastic when they removed the asbestos...not likely

Just a couple of guys with resporators that took what? a week! thats an awful lot of money to pay

expect a lawsuit from the previous owner
I think the city jumped the gun on this one. The insurance company will fight city hall and I expect that the tax payer are going to be on the hook for the costs.

How about the other buildings downtown that are boarded up? They don't appear to be any safer so why are they still standing?

The previous owner did not pay his property taxes for two years. It has been a bylaw for decades that unpaid taxes can lead to loss of ownership of the property. Despite that, it is a very common practice for property owners to not pay their taxes until the last moment, then only one year's worth to stop losing the property.

The fact that he had fire insurance is a red herring. He didn't lose the property because of the fire, he lost it because he voluntarily chose not to pay his taxes for two years. He didn't need one more day to deal with the insurance, he needed a check to be taken into City Hall for one year's taxes, then he would have had a whole other year to deal with the insurance issue.

The demolition deadline has absolutely nothing to do with either.

Because they didn't burn to the extent that an engineer said they were structurally unstable and represented a hazard to walkers by and adjacent buildings.

Enough time has passed that they too should be torn down or brought back to being a useable building.

If the owner brought in a cheque for the taxes, would they have backed off and let him follow procedure as far as filing the insurance claim? Would it have made any difference whatsoever? I think it was a convenient excuse to take over. Now the city will not be able to collect the 100,000 ++ dollars because it is not covered by insurance. The insurance that was in place will likely not cover it because proper procedure wasn't followed.

There was absolutley nothing the owner could have done to change the outcome, and if his bringing in a cheque to cover the taxes allowed him to follow procedure as far as demolition, then that would be very disturbing indeed. It wouldn't suddenly make the property "safe".

125k sounds reasonable

I think the new PAC will likely end up right there, the entire block, they already own the parking lot behind it, so it makes good sense, Just buy out a couple more properties and it will be a done deal. Picking it up for the cost of the demo and back taxes is probably a decent buy anyway.

Way to go city. It takes courage to follow through on a vision.

If the PAC ever becomes a reality(Hopefully not) my guess is it will be located at 8th and Brunswick, the location of the present police station.

This location ties in with the Civic Centre, Library, Coliseum,Swimming Pool, Art Centre, hotels, etc; only problem is parking, however they will be able to solve that one. That may have been why the Gaming Centre was located in the same area.

Why would you locate it in an area where the Columbus was located. That would be madness.

Why would they put the PAC where the Columbus was, How many of the 10 high and might people that would even go to the PAC would even go to that area of town, they will for sure be mugged, panhandled and the drug users. There is no better place to put it except where Chances is right now. I do not agree with having it at all bad use of our money.