Another piece of downtown Barrie’s architectural history — referred to most recently simply as 'the pink building' — is now gone.
The derelict building at 2 Fred Grant St., formerly a Bank of Montreal branch and just a stone's throw from Dunlop Street East and the local cenotaph, was brought down by a demolition crew armed with excavators over the past few weeks.
The structure, dating back to the early 1900s, is currently owned by Marc Anthony Venere, founder of MAV Beauty Brands, which is a global hair-care and personal-care company.
“It was always slotted for demolition since we purchased it,” Rob Tallis, general manager of Wynstar Commercial Properties, which is the firm overseeing development at the site, said Friday.
“As for the long-term plans, we are still planning. Short-term, we’re looking to turn it into a private parking lot,” he added.
Tallis says they intend to submit a site plan to the city.
“We’re in the process of demolishing the building right now,” he said. “We’re looking to expedite that and have it cleaned up and ready to go by the spring — I hope. We’re highly invested in downtown Barrie. We see the potential and want to improve it and are taking the right steps.”
Tallis admits the process is just beginning.
“We are in the idea-planning phase of what we might be able to do with this site,” he said. We’ve talked to the city and mayor about what the potential is, but it’s all in the early stages and nothing concrete yet.”
Other properties in their portfolio sit almost entirely in the heart of downtown Barrie, consisting of office buildings, along with a few retail shops along Dunlop Street with residential units on top.
Coun. Craig Nixon, who represents the downtown, says he hasn’t been made aware of any concrete plans with the site as of yet, saying “no plans have been submitted at this point.”
“I understand that years ago there was talk of possibly a restaurant or a couple of different options that obviously never happened,” he added. “But it was before my time on council.”
Nixon says the previous owner of the building was Paul Lynch, who could not be reached for comment.
Security and safety around the abandoned building has been top of mind for some for quite some time.
“There were a couple of fires over the summer,” said Nixon. “It was more of a safety concern than anything, and I’m sure some liability concerns, too. Rumour has it there were some folks kind of living in there and lighting fires.”
Now that the structure demolition is almost complete and soon to be cleaned up, with a parking lot being considered for the empty site, Nixon says he's fine with that.
“If it increases the parking that we currently have beside it, that’s certainly good, as we can always use more parking downtown,” he added.
“A study will be done. If we increase the parking, that’s great. If not, it just increases the space adjacent to Meridian Place, which is good, too. It’s better than an old abandoned building that has some real safety issues, and possibly structural (issues) at this point.
Nixon took issue with an alleyway that was between the two buildings prior to removal.
“We had discussions before about gating it at both ends, but unfortunately there’s a lot of fire code restrictions where you just can’t do that," he said. "The only real remedy was making the building go away. I don’t think there will be too many people sad to see it go.”
With the demolition nearing completion, all that remains of the structures of Friday is a large bank vault fortified by two-foot thick concrete walls and a steel door. It will eventually be removed from the site as well.
“It takes a special machine to bring that out,” Tallis said. “That will take some heavy-duty machinery. It’s an old-time bank vault.”
The demolition contractor, North 7, based in Mississauga, will be sending the vault door off to a scrap recycling operation.
“The safe is ridiculously strong. It’s unbelievable. I don’t even know what I’m up against right now,” Mike Camplone, an equipment operator with North 7, said on-site this morning.
“They’ve done a great job in how they have approached it,” Tallis said of North 7’s demolition work.
“The top half that was close to the buildings had to be done by hand first, so that they didn’t upset or endanger any of the surrounding buildings,” he added.
As for any historical treasure found on-site during the removal, Tallis says nothing of interest has been discovered.
However, Camplone did find some walls plastered with pages of vintage Barrie Examiner newspapers.
As for the immediate area, it has now been opened up substantially.
"It really changes the landscape of downtown Barrie, and probably the buildings behind that bank are quite happy to have lake views now," Tallis said.
