The City of Cranbrook now owns the Knight’s Hall property and plans to begin demolition and cleanup work in the near future.
The city has issued a number of remediation orders over the years to clean up the site.
Two year’s ago the building on the property caught fire and had to be taken down.
A remediation order was issued but the owner didn’t follow through, so the city had the demolition handled.
The owner also failed to follow a remediation order for the cleanup that followed the demolition.
Property taxes weren’t paid for three years so the property went up for tax sale in September of 2024.
There were no bids on the property and the city was deemed the purchaser. However, the owner had a year after the tax sale to pay all the outstanding taxes to regain the property.
That put a halt on cleaning up the site, because if the city paid for the cleanup work, the owner could then elect to redeem the then higher value property.
The deadline was Oct. 7, 2025 and the city is now the legal owner of the lot.
Work to cleanup the site will begin soon.
“Now that the derelict Knights Hall property has transferred to City ownership in October, we can take action to clean up the site. Given the high visibility and the ongoing concerns from the community on this property, there is a strong public expectation that cleanup work start as soon as possible,” said Mayor Wayne Price.
“Once this site is cleaned up this fall, along with the cleanup of the former Kootenay Springs building earlier this year, Cranbrook will enjoy a major visual improvement in 2025 thanks to the cleanup of both of these two large eyesores properties that have been unsightly for way too long.”
Council approved up to $1.29 million for remaining demolition and full site cleanup.
The costs would be recovered through selling the property once its cleaned up.
The city expects to get between $1.27 million and $1.43 million for the property.
They expect work to be completed before winter.
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