The doors on Founders’ Hall interpretive centre on the Charlottetown waterfront have closed for good.
The tourist attraction, which opened in 2001 at a cost of around $4 million, simply wasn’t drawing enough traffic to warrant opening for another season this summer.
“After 15 years, a lot of Islanders have gone through it, so it relies heavily on the tourist market, which has been declining over the last number of years,’’ Ron Waite, general manager of the Charlottetown Area Development Corporation, told The Guardian on Monday.
The interpretive centre told the story of Confederation, beginning with the Charlottetown Conference in 1864.
“Over the last three years, in particular, it has been losing some money and, unfortunately, the trend line is going in the wrong direction.’’
In order to operate this year, some of the high-tech equipment in Founders’ Hall was going to require maintenance, such as the video and audio servers, which help operate many aspects of the attraction.
“We’ve replaced a couple over time, but now most of them are getting well beyond the end of their useful life. (So), it’s investment time.’’
To maintain the status quo, it was going to cost into the hundreds of thousands to fix up. Adding a more interactive quality to the storytelling was going to run into the millions.
“We don’t have the money and we’re not quite sure in these times of fiscal restraint (whether it made business sense) . . . unless you can demonstrate in a pretty significant way that (business) is going to pick up and become a major contributor to the tourism business.’’
The visitor information centre component, which the Charlottetown Harbour Authority operates for CADC, has already moved into the adjacent, and smaller, stone house.
Founders’ Hall was pulling in close to 40,000 people per year when it first opened, but numbers fell to around 10,000 per year lately. With increased costs of maintaining the building, CADC lost approximately $10,000 in 2013, $60,000 in 2014 and $75,000 last year.
Considering a major reinvestment was required, the decision was made to keep the doors closed.
Waite says CADC is in talks with a developer who is interested in the property, although due to a non-disclosure agreement he can’t provide any other details.
“We certainly think it’s got some appeal in terms of a nice addition to the waterfront and what we’re talking about would help draw people down to the waterfront year-round.’’
The doors on Founders’ Hall interpretive centre on the Charlottetown waterfront have closed for good.
The tourist attraction, which opened in 2001 at a cost of around $4 million, simply wasn’t drawing enough traffic to warrant opening for another season this summer.
“After 15 years, a lot of Islanders have gone through it, so it relies heavily on the tourist market, which has been declining over the last number of years,’’ Ron Waite, general manager of the Charlottetown Area Development Corporation, told The Guardian on Monday.
The interpretive centre told the story of Confederation, beginning with the Charlottetown Conference in 1864.
“Over the last three years, in particular, it has been losing some money and, unfortunately, the trend line is going in the wrong direction.’’
In order to operate this year, some of the high-tech equipment in Founders’ Hall was going to require maintenance, such as the video and audio servers, which help operate many aspects of the attraction.
“We’ve replaced a couple over time, but now most of them are getting well beyond the end of their useful life. (So), it’s investment time.’’
To maintain the status quo, it was going to cost into the hundreds of thousands to fix up. Adding a more interactive quality to the storytelling was going to run into the millions.
“We don’t have the money and we’re not quite sure in these times of fiscal restraint (whether it made business sense) . . . unless you can demonstrate in a pretty significant way that (business) is going to pick up and become a major contributor to the tourism business.’’
The visitor information centre component, which the Charlottetown Harbour Authority operates for CADC, has already moved into the adjacent, and smaller, stone house.
Founders’ Hall was pulling in close to 40,000 people per year when it first opened, but numbers fell to around 10,000 per year lately. With increased costs of maintaining the building, CADC lost approximately $10,000 in 2013, $60,000 in 2014 and $75,000 last year.
Considering a major reinvestment was required, the decision was made to keep the doors closed.
Waite says CADC is in talks with a developer who is interested in the property, although due to a non-disclosure agreement he can’t provide any other details.
“We certainly think it’s got some appeal in terms of a nice addition to the waterfront and what we’re talking about would help draw people down to the waterfront year-round.’’
