City-owned buildings to be demolished in Vernon

VERNON – The city will be tearing down a building and creating more parking in Vernon.

The city-owned Vernon Flower Shop building on 31 Avenue, by the transit bus loop, is officially getting demolished.

The lot will be used for parking, which is on short supply in the city with the recent sale of the Bennett lot for a new care home development.

“With the Bennett lot being devoid of parking we can turn this space also into future parking,” Mayor Akbal Mund says.

The lot is the proposed site of the new art gallery, but it’s now known when, or if, it will ever be built there.

“Either way we have to demolish it so moving ahead on the demolishment of that building just creates the land space there,” Mund says.

A number of other city-owned buildings are also set for demolition, including the former New Delhi restaurant and Open Door Learning Centre on 29 Street.

“We can get the same company to demolish them so there will be a savings there,” Mund says.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infonews.ca or call 250-309-5230. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.