Some Canmore residents may not have lived in the community long enough to remember when the global economic crisis that began in 2007 burst the bubble of real estate speculation in the mountain town, but one derelict and abandoned condo project at the time still stands along Kananaskis Way as a stark reminder of what can happen when developers go belly up.
The condo project at 110 Montane Road has been a thorn in the side of municipal planners for a decade. Now, after almost of decade of the project sitting unfinished, Richard Williams, junior planner with the Town of Canmore, said a demolition permit has been issued.
“The owners are in discussions with the Town regarding the demolition and redevelopment of the property,” Williams wrote in an email to the Outlook.
Bighorn Mountain Resort, as it was called when it began construction, saw financial difficulties hit its Kananaskis Way project in 2007 and by 2009 it went into receivership. By September 2010, a new company had purchased the project, which sat idle and unfinished for a year and a half at that point, and rebranded it as Innoka Point Resort.
But that deal also fell through, with no construction restarted on the fractional ownership project consisting of five blocks of four townhomes as well as a 5,000 square foot amenity building. Representatives of Innoka Resort at the time said the half finished buildings were worth $10 million and they would invest another $10 million to complete them.
The abandoned building was a significant cause for concern for local condo projects and hotels, like the Windtower directly across the street from it. With balconies falling off the sides of the building, people squatting in the building and windows broken through vandalism –by 2012 the municipality was receiving complaints about the project’s state.
While the abandoned condo project was eventually fenced for safety, by 2013 it was owned by a numbered Alberta company. By the summer of 2015, the development permits to finish the project had expired with the municipality.
