Century-old landmark building could be in line for a comeback

The city is spending nearly $1 million for repairs to the roof of the Armour Block and more work may be coming.
    
The building on 4 Street N.E. near Memorial Drive has been a fixture in the neighbourhood since the early 1900s.

Its purpose today is much the same as it was in its early days. 

Tenants still live in the 32 units on its two upper floors. The commercial space on the ground floor currently sits empty but awaits future possibilities. 

The acting manager of building infrastructure for the city's facility management said the roof work will prevent potential leaks and water damage to the building's interior.

Susan Specht said the work is part of keeping up  maintenance on an older building, but more work is around the corner.

"We are going to begin our planning sessions for the entire block as a whole in 2020 so we'll be exploring different opportunities," she said.

Once the future use of the building is determined, then the scope of required work will be established. 

Future use has been up in the air

Any investment in the Armour Block has been a long time coming. 

The building dates back to 1909 and underwent several additions in the following couple of years.

Specht said it remains one of the oldest mixed-use buildings in the area and a rare example of an Edwardian commercial-style building with residential on the upper floors.

Besides housing tenants upstairs, the building has been home to a department store and an office furniture store.

The city's heritage inventory, which also refers to the building as the Reliance Block, states that the basement was used in its early days for services by the Jewish community.

The property been owned by the city since the 1970s. The area's councillor said she is glad the building is finally getting some attention.

City acquired building for future interchange

Druh Farrell said the Armour Block was controlled by the transportation department for many years as the land was acquired for a potential interchange.

That work never happened and she said the building wasn't saved so much as the city dithered over what to do with the site.

The Armour Block doesn't currently have any heritage designation.

She said the lack of planning for what to do with the building has been a source of frustration.

"We've been talking a lot but not acting. We've got to figure out a better way to move these projects forward," said Farrell.

Remarkable site

Given that the century-old building is just part of the city owned land, she said there's a real opportunity to activate the building and do more development which could really energize the streetscape.

"It's a remarkable site. It's a large site and it could be wrapped with some pretty significant density. We just need to get out of the way sometimes and we have a hard time doing that."

She points out that the site includes a surface parking lot to the south so the land does have frontage on Memorial Drive and it sits just across the river from downtown.

Farrell said that means it presents a unique opportunity for redevelopment as well as the preservation of the heritage building.

All that's needed now is a plan for a building she calls an asset for the city.