Century-old downtown building to be torn down
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/529004--century-old-downtown-building-to-be-torn-down
A deteriorating century-old downtown landmark will be demolished by the end of the month after several years of not being able to attract a tenant.
The building, which was built in 1910 and housed the Zig Zag Zebra and Caesar’s Restaurant on King Street East across from Gore Park, was “totally dysfunctional” with no “handicap accessibility,” property manager Robert Miles of Wilson Blanchard Management said Friday.
The ground floor, on which previous renovators had laid bricks over wood, had started to cave in, and people have to climb steps immediately upon entering the building at 30 King St. E., Miles said.
When the Zig Zag Zebra stopped paying rent about six months after Wilson Blanchard Management took over the building, property managers couldn’t pin down committed tenants, Miles said.
“What you have left now is a dysfunctional, (inaccessible) building that was falling apart from the inside out,” he said. “It had to be taken down.”
While they have received calls from those complaining about the demolition, which began more than a week ago and will finish in about two weeks, there was nothing left to preserve because previous renovators had destroyed historical material in the front of the building sometime between the 1950s and 1970s, Miles said.
The building, which is valued at about $400,000 including the land, had cost them about $20,000 in heating and taxes annually for the last five years, he said, adding it will cost $150,000 to repair the walls of the buildings on either side of the demolished facility.
The site was hit by a fire last week, but the blaze was not suspicious and is believed to have been caused by some of the ongoing construction work, Hamilton fire public information officer Dave Christopher said.
Hamilton Downtown Business Improvement Area executive director Kathy Drewitt said it was “sad to see another historic building go.”
But she hopes the demolition will open up opportunities to acquire a tenant for the recently vacant building next to the former Zig Zag Zebra, transform the empty lot into a patio and create an entry ramp to the ground floor of 28 King St. E., Drewitt said.
A café and open patio would coincide nicely with the BIA’s Gore Park Promenade program which will feature vendors at the downtown park, starting June 15, and runs every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, Drewitt said.
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