Business owners in a heritage building in Vancouver have been forced to close their doors as engineers assess the state of its crumbling façade.
“At 3 p.m. on Friday we were instructed that we would need to close our business,” said Allen Ingram, the owner of Home on the Range Organics.
“We closed our front doors at the end of the day, 5 p.m. and as such we have been closed since that point.”
Ingram’s shop is located in a two-storey brick building at 245 East Broadway where a scaffold protects pedestrians. In recent weeks, loose bricks were noted and last week, the engineer decided to act.
“I’m in a 100-year-old heritage building,” said Skylar Stock, the owner of Mintage Mall, a vintage clothing store occupying the second floor. He was also forced to close Friday and remained closed Tuesday.
“The brickwork on Broadway and the brickwork on Kingsway could be compromised,” he said. “Why would I want to put somebody at risk if there’s potentially risk?”
Both owners wonder if construction of the Broadway subway extension could have played a role in their building’s deteriorating condition. It’s a massive project to expand the SkyTrain Millenium Line 5.7 kilometres from the VCC-Clark Station to Arbutus Street.
“Obviously we look to the province to put in a compensation package that should have been there for the (Canada Line Cambie Street construction), that they could definitely do now,” Ingram said.
Between 2005 and 2009, businesses along Vancouver’s Cambie Street complained they were being hammered by construction of the Canada Line. That tunnel was built using the cut-and-cover method where crews dug a massive trench before installing rails and finally covering the tunnel with asphalt.
Businesses sued for compensation and won at the B.C. Supreme Court, a decision that was later overturned on appeal.
The Broadway subway is instead being bored in deep tunnels. Only station areas are being dug out, though this has caused traffic disruptions in construction zones. Ingram’s building sits just east of one of these pits.
Construction of the $2.8-billion project is overseen by the Transportation Investment Corporation on behalf of the provincial Minsitry of Transportation.
On Monday, B.C. Transportation Minister Rob Fleming showed little enthusiasm for compensation.
“It’s an older heritage building,” he said, suggesting the loose bricks are more reflective of the building’s overall condition and not construction nearby.
“The tunnel-boring machine has gone by, vibrations were not observed at all and there is monitoring equipment on site,” he said.
The city has ordered an engineer to assess the building’s condition and determine next steps. Business owners have been told that work could take days or weeks.
“I hope it’s quick and I can say to my staff, ‘days off are over,’” Stock said. “Time to get back to work.”
