City presses to demolish building that owner won't

Calgary's city council will be asked on Tuesday to approve paying for the demolition of a privately-ownedapartment building in Kensington that was declared unsafe and unstable.

In 2017,the seven-storey Kensington Manor, located at321 10th St.N.W., was hastily evacuated after the city deemed it in danger of imminent collapse.

The 125 residents of the 57-unit building, and retail tenants on the main floor, were only given15 minutes of notice to get out.

The building was temporarily shored up, but the city says it's not economically feasible to fix.

• City will take action to deal with unstable building
• Kensington Manor to be demolished

The city says it has tried working with the building's owner but communications have collapsed.

"We have the authority to demolish the building. What we need is a source of interim financing so that we can commence demolition actions," saidCliff de Jong, with the city.

The owner was served with an order to either fix or demolish the building by Jan. 30, 2019, but the owner requested an extension to that deadline and when the city denied it, the owner stopped cooperating.

'Highly unusual and it's unfortunate'

The owner didn't pay an engineer and shoring and fencing contractor it had hired so they discontinued services, according to a report that will be delivered to a council committee on Tuesday.

The city is spending $18,000 per month to mitigate hazards and maintain safety forthe empty building, to a total of $59,632 as of May 1.

The area's councillor says there's no time to waste.

"It's unprecedented for me and for most of the people working on this particular file so it's highly unusual and it's unfortunate," said Coun. Druh Farrell.

"It's been shored up with hundreds and hundreds of supports but it poses a risk to the public. It's been breached quite regularly now. The city has security going several times a night, they're constantly monitoring it, so there's a cost already that the city is bearing."

There's no estimate yet on the cost of demolition as the work would need to be put out for bids. The city estimates that demolition and asbestos removal could begin in August, and be completed in spring of 2020.

The city will recover its spending on Kensington Manor by adding its monthly costs as well as the cost of the demolition onto the tax bill for the property.