The City of Kamloops says it could take between six and eight weeks for the Northbridge hotel demolition work to be complete.

Capital Projects Manager Matt Kachel says its because crews have to take the roughly 70-year-old building down piece by piece.

“People think it’ll probably just a wrecking ball and stuff but its got to get engineered down the same way it got engineered up for safety,” Kachel said. “So they have to take it down in stages.”

“They also have to pile it up and separate it to make sure that the waste is going to the appropriate location, so it takes a bit more time to do it properly.”

Kachel says the property on Tranquille Road will be fenced off while work is ongoing, telling Radio NL there will be security on site as well to make sure that people don’t trespass after hours.

“When the contractor leaves the site, the fence will remain but there will be security monitoring the site so that no body goes in there,” Kachel added.

“The contractor will also in the morning do sweeps just in case somebody did get in there that nobody is around so that nobody gets hurt while they’re taking the building down.”

Demolition work began in March of last year, with an expected completion date in September. Work had to be delayed so Telus could move a number of antennas that were on the roof of the building at 377 Tranquille to the new Active Care building at 501 Tranquille Road.

“The harder part of the project was actually cleaning out the inside of the building,” Kachel said. “That is where a lot of the work was.”

“This is actually the easier part now that the super structure comes down because its just taking the concrete down. So far so good, but we’ll see how it plays out here as we get into it here, this last phase.”

The City bought the hotel for $7.1 million in October 2021, with plans to redevelop the building into market housing, which is expected to happen “at a future date.”

Also included in that deal was the adjacent property at 346 Campbell Avenue, which BC Housing is buying for $3.8 million. BC Housing plans to construct a six-storey, 80-unit affordable housing building.

“Its just another step forward as we continue to revitalize the corridor,” North Shore Business Improvement Association Executive Director Jeremy Heighton told Radio NL, calling the resumption of demolition work “a really good day” for Kamloops.

“I think the momentum and the enthusiasm we have seen and created on the North Shore will continue for the next three to five years. It’s a really good symbolic example of moving forward in our community.”