By Thia James

UPDATED: Minto Apartments being torn down Monday

Aug 18, 2014 | 7:06 AM

The long battle over the fate of the Minto Apartments appears to be drawing to a close with the planned demolition of the building on Monday morning.

The long-vacant apartments have been the subject of near decade long legal battle. The building, known to area residents as “The Snake Pit,” has been eyed for demolition for years. A Court of Queen’s Bench judge in Prince Albert ruled in 2011 that the City had the legal right to tear the Minto Apartments down.

The City took over the property in late 2012, citing unpaid property taxes. Numerous lawsuits were filed by the building’s former landlord and owner, Larry Markwart, including one over the City’s takeover of the property. []

On Friday, Mayor Greg Dionne said they can go ahead with Monday’s demolition because the appeal Markwart has before the courts does not stop the City from demolishing the property.

“We are the lawful owners of the property. We took it back … under non-payment of tax, so we have tax title. The other process is continuing to go on whether we have the right or not.”

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The Minto Apartments have been closed for 11 years and the building has been a notorious spot where drug activity and violence has taken place.

During the period in which the legal battle was in progress, Dionne said a person was killed on the property.

“There’s lots of harsh and ugly memories about that building, the condition it was [in], the abuse that was going on there, the addictions, the needle use. The whole neighbourhood has been happy that we had it closed.

“But we’ve been frustrated because it’s taken us this long to finally demolish it.”

Dionne said they chose to go ahead with tearing the building down because the City’s in the position to move to tear it down. He added that demolishing the Minto Apartments is the right thing to do, “because there’s no value in that building.”

The City had also passed a motion to go after Markwart for costs, Dionne said. “We’ve been very successful in getting costs over the last 11 years and now we’re going to go out and collect it.”

After the demolition, the City plans to package the land with part of the adjacent parking lot it owns and put it up for sale.

Unlike the demolition of the Aylmer building and Suzy Cue's, there wasn't a statement issued or notice sent out saying the Minto Apartments would be torn down.

An indication that something was happening was, however, contained in a traffic restriction. A road closure would be in effect Monday morning to accommodate a building's demolition at 51 Ninth Street East. 

Markwart declined to comment ahead of the demolition. He did confirm that he had an appeal before the courts at this time.

The mayor is looking to send a message to other landlords and owners in the city with this demolition.

“We have standards – that we don’t believe people in our community should be punished by living under those standards and that we intend to enforce our standards and no matter how long it takes us because we believe that people have to have a safe place to live.”

Although Dionne is happy that the process is finally over, he’s sad that it had to come to this. He said there was some lifespan in the building, but for the last two years it didn’t have heat. The boilers froze and the water heaters no longer work.

“So, it’s beyond it’s beyond [trying] to sell it and repair it. So, we’ve made the decision to demolish it.”

The demolition is set to get underway at 8 a.m., when the city will close Ninth Avenue East between Central and First Avenue East. The closure will be in effect until Thursday.

paNOW will have more coverage from the demolition site. 

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames