The City of Nanaimo has ordered the owner of a historical south-end hotel to make it safe or tear it down.
A remedial action requirement was approved at a special council meeting Thursday, Sept. 26, based on a report from city staff that the former Jolly Miner Hotel at 540 Haliburton St. has become dilapidated and structurally hazardous.
The two-storey structure opened in 1889 as the Italian Hotel and in the early 1900s started operating as the Columbus Hotel until its name was changed to the Newport Ball and Grill and then the Jolly Miner Pub. It had 20 single-occupancy rooms upstairs and a pub on the main floor.
According the city staff report, the pub ceased operations in the 2010s after pipes burst and flooded the premises. The city designated the hotel as a nuisance property in 2012 and Nanaimo Fire Rescue issued a fire order in 2013 after it responded to 63 calls to the property including 45 medical-aid calls and two structure fires. There were two more structure fires in 2019 and evidence of other unreported fires around the outside of the building’s exterior, the report noted, and six deficient fire inspection reports were recorded between 2007-2023.
A bylaw contravention notice was registered to the property in 2017 after it was determined that interior partition walls and plumbing had been moved without building permits or inspections.
The city’s building department, concerned over the building’s safety and structural integrity, issued a do not occupy order in February of last year, and told the owner to either hire an engineer to assess the structure or get a permit to demolish it by March of this year. A permit to demolish the building was issued in April of this year that required demolition to be complete by July 15, but the permit expired and the Jolly Miner remains standing.
The report also said the current owners applied to convert the hotel into residential apartments in November 2023, but cancelled when advised about the necessary permits.
The property is currently for sale and the staff report noted there are no active applications for the property. Interior modifications to the building’s framing and interior wall and ceiling finishes – all done without permits – have “reduced the building’s ability to resist lateral forces” and the structure is now showing “significant deflection in the exterior walls, particularly on the south and east elevations directly adjacent to public sidewalks and is hazardous.”
Given the concerns over the building’s dilapidated condition and safety, council approved imposing a remedial action requirement for the structure. The owner will be required to have an engineer submit a structural assessment of the building within 30 days, apply for a building permit or demolition permit within 60 days and complete construction or demolition work within 90 days after receiving the permits.
“The remedial action requirement provides the property owner with two options, either to get a structural assessment of the building and complete all work necessary to remediate all hazardous conditions and structural deficiencies, or to demolish it,” said Dave LaBerge, city director of public safety, in an e-mail to the News Bulletin. “If the remedial action requirement isn’t acted upon, the city will take steps to demolish the structure and charge the costs back to the property owner.”