Calgarians lobby to save historic building from Green Line teardown

Some southeast Calgary residents want to save a century-old building set to be torn down butLRT developers say time is running out.

The boarded-up Ogden Block at 7044 Ogden Road S.E., is alaundromat and apartment building built in 1914 by Eng Hon Quan and Eng Shon Yun, who operated the Hong Lee laundry on the main floor and ran an 18-room boarding house upstairs into the 1920s.

The city plans to demolish it, along with other nearby buildings, to make way for the southeast leg of the Green Line.

On Wednesday, community residents stood outside the building with signs in support of keeping the building.

Bonny Warbeck, chairperson for the Millican-Ogden Heritage Group, said the building should be incorporated into future development.

"Once we started to lobby toward saving it, the demolition was halted," Warbeck said.

"We are just hoping that we can save this building, especially at a time when there's such a housing crisis in Calgary," she said, adding the community has very few historic buildings left.

Due to the group's action, the city, which previously said the building was not historically significant, has added the building to its inventory of evaluated historic resources, Warbeck said.

"It's a brick structure. It's substantial, it's sound, it's solid, it can withstand another hundred years or more, and we've lost so many of our heritage buildings here."

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said he's asking if any non-profits or developers want to take over the building from the Green Line developers, and manage it until a permanent plan can be made.

"There is no reason to take down a good building with good bones, and we will find a way to make that happen," he said.

"The offer to the Green Line is that we will take it off your hands."

However, the party that would take over the building would need to strike a deal and create a viable proposal for the Green Line team, Carra said.

He added that there have been a number of interested parties from the non-profit and private sector.

The director of stakeholder relations and communications for the Green Line, Wendy Tynan, said they've given the community a loose April deadline.

"We are still planning to move forward with demolition if we don't have a plan from them shortly," she said.

Tynan says even if the building survives construction of the Green Line, the city couldn't guarantee a developer would want to build around it in the future.