A public call will soon be issued for contractor bids for the demolition of buildings and surface cleanup of the former Knight’s Hall/Tudor House property on King Street, after the City of Cranbrook officially became the legal owner of the property on October 7.

City council today approved the spending of up to $1.29 million for the building demolition and surface clean-up of the property, which includes $500,000 for tipping fees for disposal and hazardous materials management.

The cleanup costs would be recovered upon the sale or lease of the property, which has a post-clean up appraised value of between $1.27 million and $1.43 million.

“Both the former Knight’s Hall and former Kootenay Springs building have been long-standing eyesores in the community,” the city stated in a media release.

“The former Kootenay Springs building was demolished in March 2025 and the property cleaned up, a major visual improvement in that area thanks to the new owners taking quick action. With that cleanup now complete, attention has shifted to the other major Cranbrook eyesore; the old Knight’s Hall property. The property currently contains piles of debris from demolished buildings, burnt vehicles, and other unsightly remains, prompting questions from the public about what is being done to address the mess,” the city outlined.

“The old Knights Hall property has been derelict for many years. In the past the city issued a remediation order on that property for the owner to clean it up, which was not complied with. When the Knight’s Hall caught fire nearly two years ago and had to be taken down to eliminate the danger of the remaining burnt out brick shell falling on the public sidewalk, that created a larger mess with another large debris pile.

“A second remediation order was then issued by the city for that additional cleanup work. That second remediation order also was not complied with, and the mess remained.

“In addition, property taxes were not paid on Knight’s Hall for three years which resulted in the property being put up for tax sale in September 2024,” the city explained.

“With no bids on the property at the tax sale, the city was deemed the purchaser. Under the tax sale, the original owner has one year after the tax sale (until October 2025) to pay all the outstanding taxes (the redemption period). The city does not own the property during the one-year redemption period.

“This created a block for cleanup work to be done on that site by the city. If the city decided to spend tax dollars to clean up the property during the redemption period, it was very possible that the original owner could elect to redeem the now more valuable cleaned up property. City taxpayers would then have paid to clean up the property for the financial benefit of the original owner which would be an unacceptable use of taxpayer dollars.”

The property owner did not redeem the property by paying the outstanding taxes before the redemption period ended, on October 7, 2025, which means the property is now legally owned by the City of Cranbrook.

In preparation for the possibility of the city becoming the owner of the Knight’s Hall property, the city had a site demolition and cleanup plan, hazmat safety procedures, disposal procedures, and cost estimate for initial surface cleanup created earlier this fall.

“Another step in preparation for this property becoming city-owned was reducing the financial impact to the city and taxpayers with emphasis on cleanup tipping fees that would need to be paid for disposal of the debris,” the city said.

Councillor Norma Blissett and Mayor Wayne Price recently made a motion to the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) requesting to reduce tipping fees to cut the cost of cleanup on this property to city taxpayers. The RDEK board voted in favour of reducing mixed construction tipping fees by 50% from $200/ton to $100/ton, cutting the cost of disposal in half for tipping fees.

This reduced the cost of the Knight’s Hall debris tipping fees from an estimated $1 million by half, to $500,000.

City staff have also been researching and contacting various agencies and organizations, as well as conducting grant funding searches, however, this type of cleanup work does not currently have any external funding support available,” the city noted.

The cost of the cleanup will be paid by the city’s land sale reserve funds, with the costs being recovered through either the sale or lease of the cleaned-up property.

“Now that the derelict Knights Hall property has transferred to city ownership in October, we can take action to clean up the site. Given the high visibility and the ongoing concerns from the community on this property, there is a strong public expectation that cleanup work start as soon as possible,” said Mayor Wayne Price.

“Once this site is cleaned up this fall, along with the cleanup of the former Kootenay Springs building earlier this year, Cranbrook will enjoy a major visual improvement in 2025 thanks to the cleanup of both of these two large eyesores properties that have been unsightly for way too long.”

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