By Dominic Abassi

Upscale rental housing planned to replace old Nanaimo City Hall Annex

May 3, 2017 | 2:23 PM

NANAIMO — High-end rental housing is planned to replace Nanaimo’s old City Hall Annex, which has sat vacant for more than three years.

Council has approved a development permit for Cracey Holdings to build the residential rental project at the corner of Franklyn and Wallace Streets downtown. Demolition of the 80-year-old building will begin this month, according to Cracey director Darren Moss.

“Our intent is to bring a product that represents what Nanaimo can be downtown and encourages people to live downtown,” Moss told NanaimoNewsNOW. “Our belief is the residential rental market has a sector of it that would be willing to pay a little more for the building we want to build.”

The building Moss referenced will feature “better than average” amenities and target people looking for a rental they can take pride in. “We’re building a building for a rental market that doesn’t exist yet in Nanaimo.”

“I’m really pleased to see this project come forward,” coun. Ian Thorpe said. “I think it’s a very interesting and innovative design…I really liked the mixed-use component and underground parking.”

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About 150 City of Nanaimo staff worked out of the old annex building before construction of the $15.7 million Service and Resource Centre on Dunsmuir St. in 2012. Real estate manager Bill Corsan said the annex was found to be seismically unsafe and as a municipal corporation they couldn’t sell it as is.

Corsan said because the demolition or repair costs exceeded the value of the land the City chose to sell it for just $1. Covenants placed on the sale lowered the assessed value to $2, meaning the City has not earned property tax revenue since Cracey took possession in 2014. As soon as demolition happens, taxes will be collected moving forward.

Coun. Jerry Hong voiced some concern over the property being used for rentals considering the City basically gave it away.

“I would have liked to have seen some affordable housing but they did put some micro-units in there which are pretty affordable for people that rent so I’m pretty satisfied with the design,” Hong said.

Cracey’s design proposed three micro-units, one and two bedroom townhouses and larger suites making up 46 residential units.

“I agree, it would have been nice to have seen some low income housing into it, especially since we’re about to give them an extra floor, which means extra space, but it’s going to go ahead and I think that’s great,” coun. Gord Fuller said.

Moss said demolition will take a couple of months. He said they’re currently working through the investor phase and hope to begin construction later this year.

“To me this is a really good news story and it shows that patience pays off…A patient approach to a tricky situation has really paid off,” coun. Diane Brennan said.

dominic.abassi@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @domabassi