St. Marys has snapped up a long-vacant downtown building as officials at town hall ponder the development of a municipal services hub that could also include space for arts and culture.
The town’s chief administrator, Brent Kittmer, announced the purchase of 14 Church St. N. on Tuesday, a little less than a week after the sale was finalized.
“We thought it was a really exciting opportunity for us, and so we moved on it,” Kittmer said. “This is a unique opportunity for the town to own and offer a campus of services from three neighboring properties. We hope it will encourage even more people to explore and experience our historic downtown core.”
Located directly across from town hall and the St. Marys public library, the brick and limestone structure was at one time home to the Mercury Theatre. Various owners have repurposed it over the years, most recently as meeting space for a local church, but the building has been vacant since 2006.
The price of the building is being kept under wraps, for now.
“It’s fair to say it was market price for the downtown,” said Kittmer, adding that a structural engineer hired by the town has confirmed the building has “good bones.”
More details will be available in April when town councilors are presented with a report outlining the building’s future. No decisions have been made yet, but Kittmer said the plan will likely address various strategic priorities. Expanding the footprint of the town’s library is one.
“We need space even just to serve the population we have today,” Kittmer said. “We look at this as a really neat, probably mid-range option for the library to grow into.”
Space for St. Marys Community Players, the local theater group that operates Town Hall Theatre, is also being discussed. So is potential space for a small business incubator.
“In terms of what we see going in there … there’s no perfectly crafted vision today, but what we know is that we have strategic needs for space,” Kittmer said.
Residents in St. Marys will have an opportunity to weigh in.
Now that the building is purchased, the town will hire a planning consultant and establish a steering committee to help narrow down the most appropriate uses for the property. The town has already secured a provincial grant for that process, which will be similar to the one that preceded the Queen Street reconstruction project in 2016, Kittmer said.
“We know how much our residents and visitors value our heritage buildings,” he said. “We look forward to collaborating with the community as we develop a vision for this new municipal facility.”
The town is aiming to have the building open in 2025 or 2026.
“We want to show our community that we’re prepared to invest in our downtown core,” Kittmer added. “We know throughout the pandemic it’s been difficult for … small town downtowns in Ontario. For us this is a good unique opportunity for the town to purchase a building, to revitalize it, to redevelop it, and to show our community we still believe our downtown core is important and it’s vibrant and that we’re committed to being here. ”