SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — The City of Summerside has acquired a derelict downtown property and plans to tear it down to make way for a new development.
Known as the former Mother’s Antiques building, the property at the corner of King and Water streets has been a proverbial thorn in the council’s side for years.
For more than a decade, the building has been abandoned, forcing the city to take remedial measures – such as cleaning up the exterior and boarding it up after deterioration or storm damage.
Part of the problem the city faced with this file was that the former owner lived out of the province and their personal situation made communication difficult. More recently, the property was tied up in legal limbo.
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However, Mayor Dan Kutcher said an opportunity came up recently for the city to acquire the property, and council decided to move forward with the $250,000 purchase.
Kutcher noted that one of the recommendations that came from the city’s affordable housing committee report was for the municipality to do more land banking.
It was with that idea in mind that the city decided to take matters into its own hands in this case.
“As a city, we can acquire certain properties ... and help direct where we want them to go,” said Kutcher.
“It gives us more options; it gives us more activity. We can move it back into the private sector, we can tidy it up, we can do all kinds of different things. But, what I think what we were tired of was having this decrepit, falling apart building almost at the gateway to our downtown.”
As for what comes after the building is demolished, the city is still working that out.
But there is a recent precedent for the city on a similar file.
In 2020, the municipality purchased several other dilapidated buildings at the corner of Water and Summer streets, which it then demolished with an eye for a new cornerstone property for the downtown. It took some time to attract a partner, but in 2023 the city signed an agreement with developer Paul Jenkins to build The Regent: a five-storey building with 40 residential units and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Construction on The Regent is expected to begin in early June.
Hopefully, whatever the city ends up doing with the Mother’s Antiques property will bring economic opportunity to the downtown area, said Rose Dennis, planning and development executive with Downtown Summerside Inc.
“There are some gaps in what we have in our business profile in the downtown region right now. So, we’d like to see something that offers some vitality, offers people another place to gather – something that’s actually going to bring some stimulation and economic impact to our downtown region.”
Buying the building and cleaning up the site shows initiative by the city, and provides an opportunity to build something special for the downtown, she added.
“I think just by acquiring it, it shows movement and it shows commitment (to the downtown,)" said Dennis.
“I think that anytime you have a municipality invested in seeing the business community succeed by opening up pathways where there were once barriers, it will allow for some creative thinking beyond what it has been and open it up to new possibilities of what it could be.”
Colin MacLean is a reporter with SaltWire in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached by email at colin.maclean@journalpioneer.com and followed on Twitter @JournalPMacLean.
