Interpretive centre at Founders Hall closing

Tourism Charlottetown Inc. won't be running the interpretive centre about Confederation at Founders' Hall this year.

Tourism Charlottetown president Doug Newson said the interpretive centre that walks people through the history of Confederation is in need of a major overhaul.

"I think that the reality was that every product kind of has a shelf life. And we looked at it and said, with technology today, it's going to need a significant upgrade or renewal," said Newson.

"And it just wasn't something we were prepared to do at this point in time."

Newson said he hopes another group or organization will decide to operate the centre, which was created more than 10 years ago.

The Charlottetown Area Development Corporation owns the Founders' Hall building, which has two other tenants in it right now.

Although Tourism Charlottetown won't be operating the interpretive centre this year, there is a chance someone else might be interested in operating the attraction, or buying the building, said CADC general manager, Ron Waite.

"We have had discussions with a couple of different groups that have expressed some interest," said Waite.

"Obviously it's a big undertaking, so there's a lot of due diligence that they would have to go through. But we're still investigating all of our options."

The Founders' Hall building and interpretive centre were built with more than $4 million of taxpayer's money.