7 January 2009
City Buying Old CP Station
Owen Sound station.
Owen Sound Ontario - Tired of a lack of action to
refurbish the "embarrassing" and deteriorating former Canadian Pacific Railway station, Owen Sound council has decided to
purchase the historic building.
The structure, a national historic railroad site, has been for sale for about a decade, said Mayor Ruth Lovell Stanners. Several
offers from private investors have collapsed over the years.
"We just could not sit back and watch that building deteriorate even further," she said Tuesday afternoon.
"It's a sound business decision that allows us to do a number of things with it. First of all, buy a building that's an eyesore
and fix that building up."
The city's offer, which Lovell Stanners would not reveal, is conditional upon a satisfactory environmental assessment on the
harbourfront property and report on the building's structural condition. All reports to date indicate the building is structurally
sound, Lovell Stanners said.
The CP station is part of a cluster of former railway properties that once included a roundhouse and turntable.
Lovell Stanners said if the deal is finalized, the city will seek proposals for the use of the building and property.
The purchase will ensure the building remains standing, she said, and the city plans to eventually designate it under the Ontario
Heritage Act.
"It's such an interesting site and it will be an interesting building as well," she said.
The purchase of the eastside harbourfront property has been considered by city council for a few years, Lovell Stanners said, but was
discussed exclusively in camera, as it dealt with a purchasing matter.
There has been plenty of time for a private investor to purchase the building, she said, but that has never happened.
Fixing it up "fits in with the city's vision for the waterfront," she said, which includes a mix of residential and
commercial buildings.
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