The Mountain View Elementary School has sold for $50,000, a seemingly small sum for its size, but an amount now former owner School District 19 believes is appropriate considering its high cost of renovations.
The sale of the historic building went through on Dec. 21, 2016, following Revelstoke City Council’s approval of the heritage revitalisation agreement for the building and its uses.
In a media release, the school board indicated they were pleased with the sale and that the amount surpassed the earliest estimates.
“We knew at that time that securing an owner would have challenges, due to the significant resources needed for revitalization,” the media release states. “It was also clear from the professional feedback we received that the sizeable funds needed to restore the building would severely limit its sale value.”
Owner Gareth Jones said he was excited with the sale and is ready to go ahead with renovations.
“It’s going to be a hell of a challenge and it’s going to take a number of years,” he said.
“The reality is that it was a tough thing to come up with what was appropriate. If you run the numbers of what I’m going to invest in there, it is considerably more than the market value of when it is completed.”
The building, which is expected to eventually house a craft distillery, a medical centre and a living space, will be a phased development.
The first phase will be getting the operations of the distillery up and running.
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