FILE PHOTO
(LEVI LANDRY / iNFOnews.ca)
October 29, 2023 - 6:00 AM
A city-owned motel in Kamloops has been emptied of residents and gutted, but the building still stands after months of preparation.
The Tranquille Road property should have been an empty lot by the summer, but the city was delayed because of Telus towers on its roof, chief administrative officer David Trawin said.
Whether the city accounted for the delay isn't clear, but the building, purchased two years ago, will sit for at least another several months before it's close to redevelopment.
The ageing hotel was purchased in October 2021 for $7.1 million, along with an adjacent lot on Campbell Avenue. Then-mayor Ken Christian said it was a key piece of redevelopment along the Tranquille Corridor, with plans to turn the hotel site over to a developer. The 346 Campbell Avenue property was set aside for BC Housing and sold to the Crown agency for $3.8 million for a future six-storey seniors housing apartment.
Northbridge residents trickled out of the building in the months following the purchase, with the final tenants finally leaving last September.
Demolition didn't start until March, but stopped once the interior work was done. Now it's waiting on Telus to move its towers before the wrecking ball swings in.
Trawin said once that's done, 377 Tranquille Road should be an empty lot in the spring.
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