The St. George Historical Supertest Committee wants Brant County councilors to explain why they recommended the demolition of the former service station on Beverly Street instead of turning it into a creative arts centre.
“We gave them a strong proposal, supported by a business plan,” committee chair Nancy Carubba said Friday. “But almost all of the councilors at that meeting said no to our proposal but they didn’t say why.”
The committee wants to the turn the former service station into a creative arts center for local artisans to create and showcase their work.
The building would include an information desk promoting local businesses in conjunction with the St. George Business Improvement Area. It also would be available for meetings, workshops and youth and seniors programming.
Under the proposal, the committee would be responsible for the centre’s daily operations, while the county would handle maintenance and repairs.
Carubba said six artisans have expressed interest in renting space in the proposed center and two community community groups said they could foresee renting it.
Carubba said the committee’s proposal aligns with the county’s Downtown St. George Community Improvement Plan.
“One of the goals of the community improvement plan is conservation of heritage buildings,” she said. “The plan also includes available parking and our plan accomplishes that goal, as well.
“When you look at what we’re proposing, it meets the goals of the community improvement plan.”.
The committee’s proposal was presented to councilors at an administration and operations committee meeting April 19.
But councilors voted 8-1 in favor of recommending for approval demolition of the property at 2 Beverly St. Two councilors were absent.
The recommendation will come before county council for approval on Tuesday.
Carubba said members of his committee are hoping to hear why their proposal was rejected.
“We’d really like to hear their objections,” she said.
“If we knew what their concerns are, we might be able to work together to resolve them.”
The county purchased the property last July for $730,000 with the idea of creating more parking in the downtown of St. George. The parking lot plan includes landscaping to beautify the property.
Councilors were told that retaining the former service station and using the rest of the property for parking would cost about $757,000. Most of the money – about $400,000 – would be used to restore and renovate the building.
Demolition would cost about $397,000.
Although councilors didn’t explain their objections at Tuesday’s meeting, some expressed concerns about renovation costs at meeting in March.
At that time, councilors deferred a recommendation to give the Supertest committee time to come up with a business plan to support re-purposing the building.
Dating back to 1834, the property has been home to the Snowball Wagon Co, the Jackson Wagon Work, as well as a Supertest service station which occupied the site until the mid-1970s. It was once home to an auto repair garage and then a Truck-Tech Performance Ltd. lease.
County councilors have recommended that a plaque or storyboard capturing the history of the site be placed on the property.
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