Efforts continue by the City of Cranbrook to prepare the former Knight’s Hall/Tudor House property for sale, following council approving on Monday, to allocate the remaining unused funds from the initial property clean-up budget to undertake some environmental studies.

Council had previously approved spending up to $1.29 million for the demolition and surface clean-up of the property at 22 Briar Avenue NW, including $500,000 for Regional District of East Kootenay landfill tipping fees and hazardous materials management based on volume and disposal cost estimates.

But thanks to a collaboration between city staff and the contractor – Scott Contracting and Excavation’s cleanup process and methods, we were able to minimize the amount of material hauled to the landfill and successfully recycled a significant amount of tested clean concrete and bricks that will be crushed and used for roadbed repairs in the city.

Recycling was also completed on clean metal throughout the site – about 100 bins worth – significantly reducing waste hauled to the municipal landfill. These efforts created around $200,000 in savings in the project budget. The final costs of the cleanup project were approximately $830,000, leaving $460,000 of the cleanup budget unused.

Some preliminary site investigation work undertaken by McElhanney Consulting Services Limited in late February 2026, resulted in the creation of a draft Stage 1 Preliminary Site Investigation (PSI) report which has identified five on-site and no off-site areas of potential environmental concern.

“This additional budget allocation of $57,400 will allow preliminary testing with digging and drilling on the site to confirm the presence or absence of contamination,” said Curtis Penson, Manager of Engineering and Field Services for the City.

“The second part of this process, if contamination is found, is to complete a detailed on-site investigation with more significant testing and sampling so the city can confirm the extent of contamination and get a report with clear recommendations and a more accurate cost estimate.”

The third part of this process would be a request to council for budget to actually complete the cleanup, such as removing contaminated soil and any spilled oil. This is the normal, accepted process used by industry and regulators, and it is the same approach that was followed for the Highway 95A parcel, and the former Tembec property.

“This important environmental work will help establish the property’s value and help to ensure that this property is project ready should the right development opportunity arise,” said Mayor Wayne Price.

The City of Cranbrook became the legal owner of the major eyesore property on October 22, 2025.

Initial cleanup of the site was completed under budget in mid-January 2026, thanks to the exceptional effort of our contractor. The site clean included cleanup of onsite debris, cleanup of onsite contaminated debris, demolition of standing building and cleanup and removal of concrete foundations.

These cleanup costs are expected to be recovered through the future sale or lease of the property, which has an appraised post-cleanup value between $1.27 million and $1.43 million for three acres of fully serviced flat land near downtown.

City of Cranbrook

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