Demolition order issued for 'unsafe and unstable' Mayfair Hotel

CTV Kitchener: Mayfair to be demolished The historic Mayfair Hotel in downtown Kitchener has been deemed unsafe and will be torn down. Abigail Bimman has details.

A historic hotel in downtown Kitchener has been ordered to be demolished.

Under one name or another, the Mayfair Hotel has stood at the corner of King and Young streets since 1905.

As of 2011, developer Andrin Homes had plans to renovate the building and raise it to nine storeys, while maintaining its exterior façade.

That proposal, which never came to fruition, called for it to become a $60-million boutique hotel, spa and restaurant, complementing Andrin’s City Centre tower currently under construction, and a second tower yet to be built.

The building had been sold again since then.

Monday, the city inspected the site after an underground pipe burst, causing flooding in the hotel’s basement.

What they found was serious enough for them to order two reports into the building’s stability, and to close Young Street at that location.

Thursday, Kitchener’s chief building official ordered that the building be demolished due to what city-hired engineers termed “immediate life safety concerns.”

“The building is in an unsafe and unstable condition,” the report from MTE Consultants reads.

According to the city, there is no way to repair the damage to the building without jeopardizing the safety of those doing the repairs.

Before the demolition permit can be approved, city council must withdraw a proposed heritage designation for the building.

That meeting isn't expected to happen until next week, with April 27 tentatively pegged as a start date for demolition work.