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Ferry Dock Hill building will be demolished this winter

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A likely century-old building now threatening to partially collapse into the St. Clair River is in line to be leveled this winter.

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The city-owned 2 Ferry Dock Hill building that city solicitor Sutheat Tim said likely dates back to 1910 has been used as a law office for more than 60 years.

City council on Dec. 3 approved $300,000 for demolition.

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Remediation work to the shoreline is also planned.

The building extends over the water where high water is “constantly hitting and eroding the bottom of the property to the point where the entire first floor risks collapsing,” Tim said.

Shoreline assessments a year ago flagged the property’s foundations for further engineering study.

Tenant George Murray Shipley Bell LLP announced the next day that the law office is in February moving to the former Bank of Montreal building at 215 Christina St. N.

The firm’s decision to remain downtown was praised in a city press release.

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Their lease with the city had been set until 2023.

“Because of the rising water, it was not in anybody’s best interest to continue,” Coun. Terry Burrell said.

The property, meanwhile – purchased by the city for $898,900 in 2003 and paid off with lease payments over the years – must remain public land, said Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley.

“It needs to be treated with a great deal of care and protection for the future,” he said.

The Ferry Dock Hill purchase linked 17 waterfront acres the city purchased from CN in the 1990s to publicly owned waterfront land extending all the way to the city’s border with Point Edward.

“Pretty well now we have it all,” Bradley said.

City-owned waterfront land also extends south to Imperial Oil, and includes land near Rainbow Park the city leases to a cement company, he said.

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Land there “at some point in time down the road will be developed into public use,” he said.

What to do with the Ferry Dock Hill property after demolition hasn’t been decided yet, he said.

“Do we just leave it as a parking lot for the time being? Are there other things that could occur there?”

It is hoped that the demolition is cheaper than the $300,000 estimate, he said.

That must place before March 31, or wait until later in 2020 because of conservation authority regulations regarding spawning fish, Tim said.

“The hope is we do it this winter.”

The building’s history also included use as a restaurant, Tim said.

It can be seen in photos dating back to around the 1920s, said Phil Egan with the Sarnia Historical Society.

The prompt demolition is a result of lessons learned, Bradley said, including the break-ins, blight and health risks that came with the gradual rot of Sarnia General Hospital before it was purchased from the city by private developers and torn down.

“When you leave a property standing, especially when it can’t be used for other purposes, you’re creating other issues,” he said.

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