Restoration of parts of the third and fourth floor of the Kenwick Building are finally set to begin, 14 months after a fire sent 16 people to hospital and forced the evacuation of the downtown high-rise.
Steeves and Rozema CEO John Scotland admits it's been a lengthy process.
"We've been waiting for the architectural drawings and specifications," says Scotland. "It's a large building and codes have changed and it's been a matter of determining what parts of the building have to be brought up to current building codes and how best to do that. We're going to be doing a life-safety study where we hire a specialized engineer architect to review all aspects of the entire building. We want to ensure it's as safe as it can be."
Scotland says the biggest issue is that most of the key mechanical systems servicing the 18-story building were on the third floor where the fire broke out, damaging boilers, generators and electrical service.
The repairs and restoration are expected to cost between $1.5-million and $2-million. Its unknown at this time how long work will take to complete.
Tenants of the 11 affected apartments were relocated either in the building or in another of the company's properties.
The blaze was caused when a small heat trace wire that was keeping a plumping pipe from freezing, shorted out, igniting surrounding insulation.
