We received a phone call today from Cory Prause, the project manager of Hatch Associates who owns the tower on Pearl Street.
Cory initially bought the tower with the hopes of renovating it and creating something special for the city of Sudbury. Plans were made to turn the tower into a restaurant with banquet facilities, commercial and office space as well as residential living. He had ambitious plans for the tower and unfortunately they won’t be realized with his developer group.
One of the most important topics of our conversation was about the demolition of the tower on Pearl Street. Cory told me that the tower will be demolished in April, they’re only waiting for the snow to melt. The papers are in place, documents are signed and the demolition is planned.
This is not good news, but we feel we can still encourage the City of Greater Sudbury to declare the tower as a heritage building.
Cory had a vision to turn the tower into a tourist attraction and become an interesting, progressive destination for the city’s residents. Unfortunately investors do not want to invest here.
Cory Prause wants to save the water tower. He bought it to preserve it. He is willing to sell the tower to the city or private investors for $150,000, the cost he initially purchased it for. The city does not want to buy it back from him as they would have to pay to maintain it (a new paint job, estimated at $1 Million, every 20 or so years).
We may not be able to raise the $150,000, but hopefully we can show the city what the towers mean to us and encourage them to declare the towers as heritage buildings. How many unique structures are there in Sudbury? How many times are we just going to demolish something rather than preserve it?
In 2005 a historic building in Sudbury was destroyed. The Foyer d’Youville church was 110 years old when it was demolished because $750,000 couldn’t be raised to pay for the necessary reparations to keep it open. We need to start preserving these buildings in order to preserve the city’s heritage.
Please submit your artwork depicting the towers. We look forward to seeing your work and displaying it here.
Save the Sudbury Water Towers 