City Council has tonight agreed to pay for a building demolition on Gore Street that could end up costing taxpayers up to $400,000.

149 Gore St. was declared dangerous in April.

The city has taken legal action against the owner, but the building deteriorated so much that officials decided it needed to be demolished immediately for safety and liability reasons.

“The building had a fire in it in the past,” Freddie Pozzebon, the city’s chief building official, told Monday’s City Council meeting.

“We’ve been watching… we’ve boarded it a couple of times prior to putting in a property standards order for the roof that had a hole in it.”

“The longer these buildings stay boarded with no heat, they continue to deteriorate. When you have breaches in the building, this accelerates the deterioration,” Pozzebon said.

“The property owner did not comply during this time despite the city also pursuing legal action,” says Larry Girardi, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for public works and engineering.

“This matter is currently before the court. In these situations, the city is left with no choice but to demolish the building for safety and liability reasons.”

“The demolition of this property proved to be overly onerous. It was determined that both the roof and the floor had collapsed. The situation was further complicated by the fact that the building was physically attached to both the adjacent neighbouring buildings,” Girardi said.

“A structural engineer was retained and it was determined that it was unsafe for anyone to enter. An environmental engineer was retained to determine the presence of any designated substances and this inspection also determined that the building was unsafe to enter.”

To prevent unauthorized entry to the site, the building was barricaded.

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