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Cranbrook, BC (April 4, 2025) – Now that the former Kootenay Springs building has finally been demolished to clean up that property,  the focus is shifting to the other large eyesore in Cranbrook, the old Tudor House/St Eugene Hospital property on King Street also known as the Knight’s Hall property. With the large piles of debris from demolished buildings and the other significant eyesores from burnt vehicles to old buildings, questions are being raised about what’s being done here to clean up the property. 

Both of these properties were privately owned, but because of their unsightly condition, they were both under “remediation orders” from the City to have them cleaned up. This is a legal tool available to the City to force compliance by the landowner to do the cleanup work. 

The previous owner of the Kootenay Springs building property did not comply with the City’s remediation order, and it unfortunately became necessary to transition this order to their estate. Good news came when the property was then purchased by a new owner that has been actively demolishing the building and will be removing the large piles of debris in the coming weeks with the intent to build on that site in the future. This is a major positive visual improvement for Cranbrook.

The old Knights Hall property has been derelict for a number of years, and the City also issued a remediation order on that property. When the Knight’s Hall caught fire over a year ago and had to be taken down to eliminate the danger of the remaining burnt out brick shell falling on the public sidewalk, that created more mess with the large debris pile that is now visible. A second remediation order was issued by the City for that additional cleanup work. It is estimated that the cost to clean up the site will be $900,000.
                                
That second remediation order also was not complied with. In addition, the property taxes were not paid on that property for three years resulting in the property being put up for tax sale in September 2024. There were no bids on the property at the tax sale, so the City was deemed the purchaser. The original owner has one year after the tax sale to pay all the outstanding taxes (redeem the property). The City does not own the property during the one-year redemption period. This creates a block for  work to be done on that site by the City. For example, if the City decided to spend tax dollars to clean up the property during the redemption period, it is foreseeable that the original owner could elect to redeem the now more valuable cleaned up property. City taxpayers would then have paid to clean up the property for the benefit of the original owner. This would be an unacceptable use of taxpayer funds.

The property owner has until September 2025 to redeem the property by paying the outstanding taxes. It is also possible that the original owner sells the property before that date. If the owner does not pay the outstanding taxes before the end of the redemption period, the City will become the owner. The property may remain as an eyesore until the property is sold by the original owner or the City becomes the owner after September 2025. 

The City is looking forward to having both of these longstanding major eyesores cleaned up and being used for something new by the end of this year.