Friday – met with unit owner Stuart Syme in my office for about one hour and agreed to meet again the next day
Saturday – met with unit owner Stuart Syme in my office for about an hour and then toured the Park Place condo complex
Disclaimers: The Town of Oliver is the owner of one unit in Park Place. No information on this three part story was gleaned from staff of the Town or any meeting held of Oliver Council. All information came from persons at Park Place in a position of authority.
Based on legal advice given to ODN – any previous offers given to the owners will be represented here as: offers from “a land developer working in the Oliver area.”
Why all this confusion about the facts? – The Park Place story was covered first by ODN back in 2013 extensively. Since the owners moved out there has been many statements, accusations, acrimony, law suits, chatter on the streets, and media reports that in some way confused the issue.
What is the issue? – What is the best way to fix the building? and who should pay for the work?.
If those questions had been answer quickly a long time ago I don’t think we would be in this position today.
In touring the building – it is a bit dark, unused, lots of construction material around – a lot of work to be done to fix. But according to the strata they have been assured most of the work is cosmetic and not structural. Experts seem to agree an earthquake in 2011 may have played a role in parts of the building shifting a bit – that might be considered normal under the circumstances.
I am not an expert but the damaged ceilings and walls need to be fixed (that damage so that the inner workings of the building could be viewed) the concrete floors need to be resurfaced professionally and then covered. Utilities such as : gas, electrical and water systems must be upgraded and windows sealed.
One of the more interesting facts about this building is that the foundation is just below all outer walls and at certain key internal points but there is no basement or crawl space. The main floor is a concrete slab with excessive amounts of cracking and damage that can appear scary to some. All of that has to be remediated. The strata officials agree much of the cracking had been there for decades and not visible to anyone.