Prince Rupert city council has decided the rundown duplex at 801 Fulton Street is a hazard and needs to be torn down to its foundation within 30 days.
The building has been the subject of complaints since last May and the city's building inspector and the fire chief has found that not only is the building generally an eyesore, but the back part of it is falling apart and it needed to be boarded up since parts of it are not structurally stable and it was being used as a hangout spot by teenagers.
The City has been trying to work with the owners of the building Arvin and Kiran Bhai – who no longer live in the city – to have something done about their building with little success.
“They did at one time talk to us and say that they would share the cost of a structural assessment with us, but that as far as we know that structural assessment was never performed and we have no indication it ever will be. And lately they have been unresponsive to all our attempts to engage them in a discussion about this building,” says the city's corporate manager, Robert Gordecki.
While the cost of the building's demolition will be charged to the Bhais, city staff are not optimistic they will get any money from them. The building sits on two different lots, one of which is already going to be sold in a tax sale, and the other is expected to follow suit.
If that property also defaults to city ownership as expected, the plan will be to sell it and use the money to cover the cost of the demolition.