The City of Yorkton was handed the property at 110 Broadway Street East – the former Ramada Hotel by Cornerstone Credit Union for taxes owing in the amount of $742,788.56.
Monday night at the regular meeting of Yorkton Council Ashley Stradeski, Director of Financewith the City, explained the building as it sits is not saleable.
“The building’s in a lot worse shape than we’d thought,” he said, adding administration proceeded with a full review of the property and confirmed “. . . it’s in really bad shape.”
As a result, efforts to sell the building have not been successful.
Prior to the final decisions by The Cornerstone Credit Union to hand the property to the City, The Cornerstone Credit Union had advertised the property for sale and had auctioned all contents of the property prior to the transfer of ownership to the City of Yorkton, detailed a report circulated to Council.
On May 5, 2021, 110 Broadway Street East was offered out to Public Tender for Sale, for a three-week period as is required by the Tax Enforcement Act. The tender included a $750,000 reserve bid and two options, which were to demolish the structure within six months or to repair/upgrade within six months.
There were no bids submitted for the purchase of the property by the tender closing date of May 26, 2021.
“It generated interest,” said Stradeski, adding the City took calls on the property but “at the end of the day there was zero bids on it.”
Stradeski did note to bring the building up to code before starting renovations was estimated to be almost $5 million.
While there were no bids, the City has had expenditures surrounding the property.
Since March 23, 2021 The City of Yorkton has become responsible for all utility bills as well as daily property security inspections required to maintain a minimum level of required building insurance.
Currently the property is being monitored daily by City staff and as of the day this report was written, the building has been broken into five times, said Stradeski.
“Financially keeping it is going to cost money,” said Stradeski. “It’s costing us a lot to keep it.”
The recommendation of Administration was to undertake demolition of the building.
Stradeski said the cost of demolition was estimated to be $450,000 and taxes, with the City waving dumping fees of the refuse.
With the building gone the City would have a large lot to sell to try to recoup what will be approximately $1.25 million (750,000 in back taxes and 450,000 in demolition costs).
