Brad Minogue walks off the space inside the darkened and historic Cochrane Block building in downtown North Bay where contractors are framing new offices and work spaces for tempered glass and LED lighting.
The local real estate developer picked up the vacant and fire-damaged 22,000-square-foot landmark edifice for $300,000 last December.
Built in 1911, the building, with its original hardwood plank flooring, post-and-beam architecture, exposed brick, and high ceilings, was an immediate hit with visitors during a city-hosted vacant building tour last summer.
A massive January 2012 fire had torn through parts of the building, displacing a sporting goods store on the Main Street side and an imports retailer to the rear on McIntyre Street.
The tour gave some much-needed exposure for the $1 million worth of interior renovations underway and delivered three new tenants to Minogue – a marketing firm, a medical software outfit and a microbrewery – now in varying stages of moving in this fall and winter.
“They were giggling in here, they were so happy to get this (deal) done,” said Minogue of the principals at Sofa Communications, who are moving in Oct. 1.
The ground floor on the Main Street side requires more extensive renovations, but up top, Minogue envisions more office space or possibly beautiful loft apartments with bay windows to catch the setting sun off Lake Nipissing.
The Cochrane Block was one of 15 properties, available for sale or lease, showcased on a three-hour, door-to-door tour of office, restaurant, retail and residential spaces last July.
The event attracted 40 participants that mingled developers and potential leaseholders from North Bay, Sudbury and Muskoka with city economic development, building and fire department staff, and a volunteer from the architectural community.
“It was an opportunity for people to visualize themselves in the space,” said Steve McArthur, the city’s economic development officer, who came across the novel idea online after it was tried in a small city in Louisiana. “You can’t capture that looking at pictures online or in an MLS listing.”
McArthur pitched the event to the local real estate board, chamber of commerce, downtown improvement association and a receptive crowd of property owners.
“The response was great. We had a lot of people turn out, our efforts were rewarded, and we got to show off the city.”
For a decade, one of North Bay’s shining lights has been its award-winning Downtown Community Improvement Plan. The successful incentive plan to dress up storefront facades and breathe new life into older buildings has been a source of inspiration to other Northern Ontario communities.
McArthur said it’s what’s necessary for struggling downtowns everywhere to compete with the big box suburban malls as urban cores lose their anchor stores and transition into niche boutique and specialty environments for small retailers, dining, arts and entertainment.
“This is not a North Bay problem, it’s a North American problem. A healthy downtown is an indication of a healthy community. We looked at what other communities were doing in new and innovative ways of attracting investment.”
He categorizes the health of the core as “relatively stable” with a vacancy rate hovering between 17 and 20 per cent, pretty standard for Northern communities. In the last year and a half, 14 new and relocated businesses have opened their doors downtown.
“What we’re seeing is a next generation of investor. Some of the older established property owners who might own multiple buildings are turning their properties over to younger entrepreneurs, and they have a real interest in seeing the downtown thrive.”
The downtown properties from the tour are viewable online on an interactive map on the City of North Bay’s economic development web page.
www.cityofnorthbay.ca/business/property-search/vacant-building-tour
