While local interest was expressed in acquiring the eight affordable rental houses from Life Cycle Housing Society’s property in Cranberry, there was no local response to a request for proposals to take them, according to the society.
After the Peak carried a story about the houses being moved out of town by Nickel Bros, William Ashworth contacted the newspaper and stated he knew for a fact there was local interest in what he referred to as the Moose Lodge houses.
“I contacted Life Cycle Housing early December of last year with an offer to purchase and move all eight houses to my property near Black Point,” said Ashworth. “I also proposed that the residents who were to be displaced could continue to live in the houses as long as need be, at the current rental price. Our intention at Lightning Strikes Developments was to set up these houses to provide affordable housing to Powell River residents.”
Ashworth said when he followed up with Life Cycle Housing in February 2021, the society informed him there were several other people in Powell River who were interested in the houses and that they were going to discuss the move with a contractor before considering any offers.
“They did say that we would be contacted shortly,” said Ashworth. “They never did contact us about these houses. One might wonder if they are actually motivated to do what is best for our community, or did they simply want to appear to care just to get the required development permits?”
Life Cycle president Frances Ladret said in December 2020, the Peak reported on a city committee of the whole meeting where the need to either move or demolish the Cranberry houses to make room for the new development was discussed. Ladret said after that report, more than a dozen people, including Ashworth, contacted the office to enquire about or express an interest in getting one or more of the houses.
“Our office kept a list of the names but made no commitments as we had not decided what we were going to do,” said Ladret. “We had not yet done the required hazardous materials assessments and we were unclear about all the regulatory and other requirements involved in house moving.
“Upon investigation, we found that house moving is a complicated and potentially expensive process. The mover has to have the necessary permits, suitable equipment and qualified labour, and insurance. In addition, they must have a site to move them to and some sort of foundation prepared, unless they want to move them twice.”
Bulk sale determined as best course
Ladret said it was determined that Life Cycle did not have the capacity to administer and coordinate moving the houses one by one.
“We also lacked information about the interested parties' understanding of the process, their capability to carry out the work, and their awareness of the potential cost,” said Ladret. “For example, we previously obtained a quote of about $42,000 to move one building to our property south of town. Our site preparation and foundation costs as well as any repairs that may have been required would have been extra.”
Ladret said Life Cycle decided to publicly advertise a request for proposals (RFP) for someone to take all the houses rather than negotiate individual arrangements.
“The RFP requirements would have given us the information we needed to assess the capabilities of the proponents,” said Ladret. “We advertised the RFP in the Peak’s January 20 and 22 print issues and the online edition. We did not receive any proposals or any inquiries about the RFP.”
Ladret said Nickel Bros came forward with a listing contract to market and move all the houses, which Life Cycle accepted.
“We had a limited time to get the buildings off the site and having a reputable, experienced outfit to do the work was reassuring,” said Ladret. “We passed our list of names to Nickel Bros. They reportedly contacted all the people on our list and arranged several viewings of the buildings with those interested when they first listed the houses. According to Nickel Bros, Mr. Ashworth did not show interest in taking all the cottages, nor did he put an offer on even one of them.”
Ladret said Nickel Bros did end up with one local viable offer on one cottage but that offer was turned down in favour of the offer to take all eight.
“The latter was a better option for Nickel Bros and ultimately for Life Cycle Housing since, based on the marketing activity up to then, Nickel Bros would likely not have been able to remove all the houses within the allotted time,” said Ladret, “so some would have had to be demolished.”
