MORE than six months after facing a call for condemnation, a low-rent, 101-year-old North Vancouver apartment may soon be able to reopen.
Dubbing Dovercourt House a "fire trap," District of North Vancouver council ordered numerous upgrades to the heritage building including an electrical assessment, fire exit stairs, a new fire alarm system and automatic sprinklers at a meeting in October 2012.
Work is currently underway at Dovercourt, according to district of North Vancouver communications co-ordinator Stephanie Smiley.
The building's owners, Ghalib Rawji and Azim Sarangi, have applied for a building permit, which is currently under review.
The building's 10 tenants, who paid as little as $300 a month to live in Dovercourt in 2012, vacated the building in January, 2013, to allow the work to commence.
Council initially gave Rawji and Sarangi 155 days to complete the overhaul under the condition that a failure to meet the deadline could mean district staff finishing the upgrades at the owner's expense.
Rawji initially protested the remedial action order on the grounds it would slow his search to secure financing. He estimated the renovation budget would fall between $200,000 and $250,000.
Rawji headed the company that purchased notorious Maple Ridge drug den Northumberland Court. He announced plans to level the dilapidated strata complex and replace it with townhomes in 2010. His application lapsed and the site is currently vacant.
Completed by Englishman Harry Holland in 1912, Dovercourt was the first hotel in the Lynn Valley area.
