[fenwick16]

This has been formally announced in the Chronicle Herald ( http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/9014119.html ). With a price tag of about 100 million, this has grown in to a major project. Here are a few paragraphs from the article:

Reno plans coming for Fenwick eyesore

By ROGER TAYLOR
Wed. Nov 18 - 7:17 AM

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“There’s going to be an expan­sion of the Fenwick Tower.

There’s going to be two other buildings on the site, one at about 10 or 11 storeys and an­other at about eight or nine storeys. And there is also going to be a lot of boutique, village­style . . . shops and a passage­way making a South Street­Fenwick connection," says Metlege.

Templeton Properties has hired Michael von Hausen of

MVH Urban Planning and Design Inc. in Vancouver, a specialist in sensitive land development planning, sustainable urban design, group facilitation and community par tnerships, to work on the project.

Metlege says a Vancouver architectural firm has also been hired to work on the project.

It’s hard to put a price tag on it, but Metlege expects the en­tire project will cost more than $100 million when it is finished.

“It’s a fairly large develop­ment. We’re going to be adding to it with the addition to the existing tower, we’re going to be completely redesigning the building, changing the entire look of it completely," he says.

The outside will be entirely re-clad, gutted inside and mod­ernized, he says.

“Basically all we’re keeping is the concrete structure, every­thing else we’re tearing out."

Templeton bought the 274-unit building completely empty. After some renovations were completed, it brought in new tenants and it is now about 93 per cent occupied, says Met­lege. Most of the exterior work can be done while the tenants are still in place.

If it takes a month to take off the old skin of the building and then one month each to put a new skin on each floor, he says, it would mean the building would be vacant for 34 months.

“There is going to be a good period of time where the ten­ants will still be in the building, but once we get into the interior gutting of the building we’ll most likely gut five or seven floors at a time. So we’ll vacate those floors, do the work and then go to the next seven floors, and we’ll move those tenants into the newly renovated units."

A public viewing of the plans are scheduled for Thursday:

There’s going to be a public unveiling Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

at Fenwick Tower, 5599 Fenwick St., where anyone who wants to look will have an opportunity to see the plans

Will anyone be able to get some pictures or renderings from the public viewing?