Call made to demolish burned out Jean Burns building in downtown Nanaimo
NANAIMO — The owner of the badly damaged Jean Burns building in downtown Nanaimo wants the structure demolished and rebuilt.
Rick Hyne of Crankshaw Holdings says they hope to have the badly burned building torn down as soon as possible following a site visit on Tuesday by an abatement contractor and environmental consultant, who both made that recommendation.
“Because the cost to abate it will probably be more than the cost to demolish it. Those are considerations for us and the fact that any type of rebuild will have to meet current building codes,” said Hyne. “That would be prohibitively expensive.”
Hyne says while their insurance company has a stake in the building’s future, he notes that city council has over-riding power and can order the building to be cleaned up or demolished. A city of Nanaimo staff report indicates that council has the ability to declare the damaged building a nuisance property which would open up several options for council, including ordering that it be torn down.