Photo: Curtis Galbraith

By Emily Keller

Community

Park Hotel to be demolished by spring of 2020

Dec 2, 2019 | 5:19 PM

It looks like what many have described as an eyesore in downtown Grande Prairie will soon be coming down.

The building that formerly housed the Park Hotel may be gone by the end of spring next year.

City administration has recommended City Council to enter into a ten-year lease agreement with the owners of the site for a re-development, which Brian Glavin, Director of Infrastructure and Economic Development, says the City will move forward with.

“The City has agreed to take on a 10,000 square-foot lease over that duration (10 years), subject to the Park Hotel being taken down, which they’ve committed to having that down by the end of April of 2020, as well as building a six-storey mixed-use building, or at least a minimum of six-storey. I think their intentions are to try to go higher if budgets allow.”

The construction is set to begin within 12 months of signing the lease, and finish within 24 months. Glavin says the building is to cost a minimum of $25 million, but that the City is agreeing to a lease within the building and that the building will be owned privately.

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The project may have an impact on surrounding sidewalks and parking during demolition and construction, says Glavin.

“At least for a short period of time, there may sidewalk and street closures that may coincide with the demolition, and then during construction, the parking that’s adjacent to the building to the east so the free parking, the public parking that’s there, that will be impacted due to construction,”

There will be approximately 64 residential units in the new building, and two storeys of underground parking.

“I think everybody is excited, I know the ownership group of that site is excited to see it come down as well and I know they didn’t like having it up either, so I think we’re all excited to see a new project downtown, and if the Park Hotel comes down with it, we’re even more excited,” adds Glavin.