The historic Kays Brothers building in downtown Charlottetown will soon have a new owner and a new purpose, following a couple of aborted efforts at redevelopment.

Tim Banks's APM group has an agreement to purchase the 24 by 24 metre property, built in 1872, which sits at the corner of Queen and King streets.

"Nothing's done until all the legal documents are finished, but I've been in the business a long time and I can't see that this thing is going to go backwards," said Banks.

Banks won't say how much he's paying Charlottetown Area Development Corporation for the building, although he does say he paid market value for it. In 2009, the CADC bought the building for $750,000. Banks said he'll spend more than $5 million on restoration and capital investment.

Banks had previously proposed renovating the structure and making it a hotel. That idea was later taken up by Danny Murphy, but he said the structure was unsound and applied to have it demolished. That would have required delisting from heritage status, and following protests Murphy abandoned the plan.

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Banks said the age of the building makes this a complicated project. He is both excited and concerned by that.

"The fourth floor previously had a fire. There's timbers that are scorched on the third floor. We won't know until we get them ripped out what we're up against, so we're taking a lot of risk here," he said.

If all goes according to plan, a building that once housed a wholesale company that didn't use computers to keep track of inventory will provide office space to information technology and financial companies by next May.