A couple of century-old structures in downtown St. John’s have been granted a stay of destruction, for now.
The buildings, from 157 to 163 Water Street, date to the late 1890s and early 1990s, but in recent years have been showing their age.
Recent inspections turned up a raft of issues that forced the owners’ hands, and they applied for a permit to demolish.
But that application received a cool response when it came before council’s Committee of the Whole yesterday, with concerns raised about the loss of such historic downtown structures.
Problem is, despite exceeding the minimum criteria, they’re not designated heritage buildings, which would prevent demolition.
The city’s own Built Heritage Experts Panel recommends council not designate the buildings, and instead ensure their unique features — such as the facade and tunnel to the harbour — are documented and incorporated into future plans.
But with no guarantees of that, and seemingly no way to enforce it, council deferred a vote on designation pending a meeting and more information from the developer.
Martin-Royal Hardware and Butler-Withers on Water Street. (Courtesy City of St. John’s.)
Tom Davis is council’s liaison with the city’s Built Heritage Experts Panel, and lead for Planning.
“My big struggle is the leap from ‘this building has problems’ to ‘therefore it must be demolished,’ and that’s not the same decision,” he said.
“The report we have is a conditioned report for the owner, tells us the building’s in poor shape, it tells us repairs will be significant, but it does not fully answer the question council has to answer which is, ‘is demolition the only reasonable option in the public interest? Because once we approve demolition that’s it. We don’t get a second chance on a 100-year-old-plus piece of Water Street.”
