Скачать или смотреть Developer Buys Derelict Janion Hotel

http://www.ctvvancouverisland.ca
  / ctvvi  
VICTORIA -- For awhile it looked like the Janion hotel would be demolished before it could be restored. But a Vancouver development company is pledging to heap attention on the 121-year old building that has been neglected for decades. "Our intention in buying it is certainly first and foremost to pursue a plan that involves rehabilitating and maintaining the existing Janion building" says Jon Stovell, President of Reliance Properties.

Reliance paid $2.49 million to buy the Janion. If the company's name sounds familiar - that's because Reliance is also behind the proposed $25 million redevelopment of the nearby Northern Junk Lands at the foot of Johnson Street, which will go to a public hearing in the fall.

The company is not revealing what exactly is planned for the Janion until Monday. The prominent building has been empty since the 1970's, except to become the venue for a 2006 protest, when a man barricaded himself inside. A far cry from how it was intended to be used.

Despite the Janion being described as quite luxurous for its time, it wasn't open for long. Only two years. Because historians say it was literally built on the wrong side of the tracks. "It didn't have a liquor license...that end of Store Street was the haunt of whalers and loggers and miners. They wanted a place that served liquor. Unfortunately the Janion was not, by the time they got a liquor license two years later, the hotel managers were bankrupt" says Ken Johnson, President of the Hallmark Heritage Society.

The building later became office space and storage. Now, it could become one of the cornerstones of a major transformation surrounding the new Johnson Street Bridge. "Part of the excitement around the bridge was that it was going to spur close to half a billion dollars worth of redevelopment...we know if Northern Junk goes ahead, that's about $800,000 a year in new assessed revenue, add that to the Janion that's $1.5 million. That goes a long way towards us at City Hall as we try to keep taxes down" says Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin.

In fact, the bridge, the Janion, and the Northern Junk could all be under construction at the same time.


Follow Andrew Johnson on Twitter:   / ctvnewsandrew