Permits are now in place to demolish a row of downtown Stoney Creek buildings that include the former Britannia Cleaners laundromat and historic Millen’s General Store (far right).
Richard Leitner Metroland
An artist’s rendering of the eight-storey condominium building KSE Holdings Inc. plans to construct by the northwest corner of King Street East and Mountain Avenue North in downtown Stoney Creek.
Builder readying to demolish downtown Stoney Creek buildings
Condo redevelopment will first require removal of contaminated soil
Work on removing the row of empty King Street East buildings by the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue North is expected to begin in the coming weeks.
Permits are now in place to demolish a row of downtown Stoney Creek buildings that include the former Britannia Cleaners laundromat and historic Millen’s General Store (far right).
The builder redeveloping a downtown Stoney Creek property that includes the former Britannia Cleaners laundromat and historic Millen’s General Store now has the necessary city permits to begin demolition.
KSE Holdings Inc. representative Nick Goomber said he expects work on removing the row of empty King Street East buildings by the northwest corner of Mountain Avenue North to begin in the next month or two.
The demolition will be the first step in readying the 0.34-hectare site for construction of an eight-storey condominium building, with 155 residential units and more than 600 square metres of ground-floor commercial space.
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Goomber said razing the buildings will also be good news for area residents who have complained about break-ins and other undesirable activities there.
An artist’s rendering of the eight-storey condominium building KSE Holdings Inc. plans to construct by the northwest corner of King Street East and Mountain Avenue North in downtown Stoney Creek.
KSE Holdings Inc. image
“It’s an exciting project, I think, to sort of help revitalize that downtown area, especially since it is such a large portion of that neighbourhood,” he said.
But Goomber said it will likely be about two years before KSE can break ground on the condo building because it must first spend an estimated $3.9 million to remove more than 18,000 tonnes of contaminated soil.
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A city grant that will be recouped through future property taxes will cover up to $2.6 million of the bill. Site tests found five contaminants that exceed provincial limits for residential use, including dry-cleaning solvents, vinyl chloride and petroleum hydrocarbons.
Coun. Matt Francis, who represents the area, said he supports the demolition permits, which will help address complaints he’s been getting about the state of the property.
He said the opposition to the redevelopment dwindled after it became clear the building that housed Millen’s General Store fell well short of meeting the threshold for a heritage designation despite being built in the early 1800s.
“The business owners down there felt like having this derelict building that’s constantly broken into was a deterrent maybe for some folks visiting the downtown core,” Francis said.
“So far, everything looks positive and I hope it keeps going that way, because it would be good for downtown Stoney Creek to have a piece down there that fits in.”
Goomber said KSE plans to honour the former general store by incorporating some salvaged materials into the new building’s design and including a plaque on the site’s history.
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