In April of 2018, Renfrew town council voted, with one dissenting vote, to sell the iconic downtown post office building to Rob Thompson Hotels for $100,000.
Rob Thompson Hotels are in the business of retro-fitting heritage type properties so they can be rented out as boutique hotel space. It’s a good idea for a property the town couldn’t afford to maintain, especially in light of the approximately $1.285 million in repairs needed to just get the place up to code.
Councillor Andrew Evans at the time was adamantly against the sale at that price, referring to an appraisal study that pegged the property at worth somewhere in the area of $635,000. With realty costs and fees, the whole place netted the town around $60,000 to $70,000. Other councillors, including Mayor Don Eady, noted the misfortune of selling well below market value, but felt this was the best price they were going to get. So, for a financial haircut of over half a million dollars, the town divested itself of an evolving eyesore badly in need of refurbishment, one in which could, with development, turn into an economic engine for downtown, replacing tattoo parlours, discount stores, and cannabis shops as key drivers of downtown business.
We’re five years on now, approaching April 2023, and the economic engine of a boutique hotel seems to be sputtering. Sputtering? Actually we haven’t yet achieved ignition, or even generated a spark.
In 2018, Renfrew coughed up the keys to a decrepit and ramshackle-looking eyesore. Today, 2023, the site continues to be a decrepit and ramshackle eyesore, one generating zero business activity in Renfrew’s downtown.
What’s happened?
COVID 19 was a son-of-a-gun on everyone, and particularly businesses, and maybe even hotels, boutique or otherwise. So if there’s been some sort of COVID-connected delay, people would understand and be patient. And it’s not like there are parades of citizens with torches and pitchforks (that would be the convoy crowd) marching up Raglan Street to demand action on this file. But still, the post office is a rather noticeable structure, so it’s not hard for the question to arise about the fate and fortunes of the boutique hotel that was destined to appear there.
Then-councillor Mike Coulas said that, in his eight years of real estate experience (at the time), he’s never seen so many conditions attached to a sale. If that was the case, I wonder if any of those conditions involved a guarantee to develop the property by the buyer.
Rob Thompson Hotels is a real thing, and they have places located across Eastern Ontario. They’re nice places, even beautiful places, and represent exactly the kind of thing that Raglan Street could use. Plus, as Coulas said back in 2018, they’d become taxpayers.
But it’s not happening, or at the very least, hasn’t happened yet. I’m not in the know, nor am I privy to any hot scuttlebutt, nor am I an investigative reporter. I can still wonder, though. Like, is there any preparatory activity? Discussions or meetings? Timelines? Any news at all?
Because if not, I fear we’ve added yet another absentee landlord to the Raglan Street mix. A heritage building and historical icon decaying in front of us, yet now no influence over what happens to it. Right in the middle of downtown.
At least the real estate people are happy.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 