SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — Two yellow excavators clawed steadily at the walls of the old Summer Street Barz Tuesday morning in downtown Summerside.
The large building, which used to house a dance bar, live music venue, a country bar and a restaurant, closed up shop several years ago.
Next door are the former Purple Parrot, Crocketts’ Jewellers and Cooke Insurance – also set to be demolished as part of the city’s downtown rejuvenation.
Called the Core Block Project, the buildings are bordered by Water Street, Summer Street and First Street. All of the buildings had been vacant for years until the city purchased them for $900,000 in July.
“We’re really trying to revitalize the downtown core, but with these empty, vacant buildings, some of them were getting derelict … we had to look at that core block,” said Norma McColeman, who is the deputy mayor and the downtown ward councillor.
Crocketts’ Jewellers was in good shape, but it was so close to the other buildings that it too is coming down, she said.
Since 2010, the Journal Pioneer has reported on at least two private ventures that considered the spaces, but neither project progressed much past the idea stage.
Normally, the city wouldn’t take ownership of such a property, but council felt it was incumbent upon it to get the land ready for developers, said McColeman.
That means demolishing the buildings, “squaring up” the land and making any needed upgrades to the underground infrastructure.
“Once that land becomes developed, it will really create the interest, we feel, into the revitalization and further development in the downtown core,” she said.
“The city really felt that we needed to get that core block prepared so that a developer could see, on site, what the potential is on the land for future development.”
The underground infrastructure has likely degraded over the years, though no one will know for sure until the buildings are gone, said McColeman. The city plans to apply for infrastructure grants from the provincial or federal governments that aren’t available to private businesses.
Dozens of people were watching the demolition Tuesday morning. Perched on planters, standing with coffees or sitting in cars, people stopped to remember what used to be there, under the debris.
Colin Leudy, who was sitting on a bench on Summer Street, with Jazz the dog at his feet, remembers the gatherings and the entertainment.
“You can’t find that now,” said Leudy.
Darrell (Jean) Gallant stopped by as well and shared a laugh with several other spectators.
“I played a lot of pool,” he said. “There were a lot of parties and a lot of fights. I fought a few of them. And there were a lot of good people that ran it.”
When asked if he’d miss it, he said no.
“It was an eyesore.”
The work will last around a month. Traffic will be impacted in the area, but the city said they’ll work to keep things flowing. A city news release said development is planned for spring 2021.
Among those working at the site were brothers Doug and Kenny Waugh, who operated excavators atop the mounting pile of beams, planks and drywall. The yellow arms of the two backhoes worked close to each other, in co-ordination.
Kenny picked out metal I-beams and placed them on a flatbed truck to go for salvage before packing a dump truck full of the wood and drywall. Doug worked along the Summer Street façade of the former businesses, crunching down exterior walls and sending bricks tumbling.
After 40 years of working together, they’re pretty good at it, said Kenny’s son, Peter Waugh, from the sidewalk on First Street. He and his cousin, Mark Waugh, were also part of the crew working on the site.
