Work continues to renovate the historic Walker Power building on Devonshire Rd. and the city is lending a hand.
Council has agreed to sell the strip of land between the building and Riverside Dr. to be used for a parking lot.
Mayor Drew Dilkens says there's a lack of parking and the city wants to make sure the development is a success.
"We agreed to the sale of land for the Walker Power building, to sell some land to the owners of the building to help make the whole flow of the building work better," says Dilkens. "We think it's a good transaction, one that will see some great things happen on that site and we're proud to be a part of that process"
He says the city has leased a smaller portion of land to the west as well and adds, "There's land right in front between the building and Riverside Dr. that we're actually going to sell to the owners and then there's some land to the west that we actually have to retain because there's a retention treatment basin underneath. So we've agreed to lease. All in all, I think both the sale and the lease allow the parking to work better for that building."
Dilkens says he's looking forward to seeing the project completed.
"Certainly it's an exciting building," he says."They've spent a lot of time and a lot of money to bring that building back to life and we're certainly happy to step forward and provide some of the necessities that they require to make the building work, which is parking.
The multi-million dollar project will see an extra floor added to the building to make it five-storeys.
Built in 1910, the property will be re-purposed with ground floor retail and restaurants while the rest will be office space.