St. John's council to spend $240K on demolition of former Belvedere orphanage

St. John's taxpayers will fork out nearly a quarter of a million dollars to demolish the former Belvedereorphanage a historic property razed by fire earlier this year.

At Tuesday's public meeting, council voted to award a tender to the lowest bidder.

The city received six bids for the work. The winner came in at just over $240,000. The highest unsuccessful bid was nearly $4.2 million.

The historic building was gutted by fire in April.

• Former Belvedere orphanage in ruins after St. John's fire

Three months later, aCBC News investigation revealed thatthe property is snarled bymillions of dollars of debt and unpaid mortgages.

The owner a numbered holding company linked to Craig Williams of the insolvent Future Group of Companies had $59 in the bank at the end of 2016, compared withregistered mortgages on the land and other unpaid liabilities of roughly $3 million.

• CBC INVESTIGATES | Taxpayers to foot bill for Belvedere Orphanage demolition, as tangle of debts snarls property

This summer, Williams said in an email to CBC News that "the mortgage holders are now fundamentally in control of this property."

One of those mortgage holders declined comment when contacted by CBC News in July. The other did not respond to messages.

At the time, Mayor Dennis O'Keefe said the city had tried contacting the property's owner, without success.

So council decided to proceed with the demolition work, for safety reasons. City taxpayers are on the hook for the cost at least in the near term.

In July, O'Keefe stressed that any cash spent by the city will be applied as a charge against the property, and should be recovered down the road.

Demolition work is expected to begin within a week, and be finished within 30 days of the tender being awarded.