The chimney of the long-vacant former synagogue on the corner of Wellington Row and Carleton Street in the uptown being demolished “down to a safe level” then capped off because it had become a safety issue.
The cost of the structural upgrades is estimated to be between $11,000 and $16,000.
Councillor-at-large Shirley McAlary tells us she’s concerned the building, which was purchased by the city for close to $500,000, will sit there for another few years with no use. “[An] organization or any company looking at getting a building uptown, you know, they probably dont want to pay that kind of money to fix a building up, they want a building that they can move into right away or they will build a new building,” says McAlary.
McAlary says it would be nice if somebody with the means to do it came along and wanted to negotiate with the city to do something with the building. According to her they’ve talked about renovating the synagogue and turning it into a city hall.
“The big issue of course with that is it’s not quite big enough, there’s not quite enough space there to have all the offices from the present city hall moved to the synagogue,” says McAlary.
City spokesperson Lisa Caissie says in the coming months the city’s Real Estate Division will release another request for proposals to try and get offers to buy the old synagogue. Caissie tells us the city has made various attempt to get rid of it in the past, which has included issuing RFPs in 2014 and 2015 with no success.
The cost to heat the building last year was $4700.
Wellington Row is closed to thru traffic in both directions until March 10 for the structural upgrades.
