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speakup

Bathurst has two large vacant buildings at both ends of Main Street in Le Chateau Hotel and the Smurfit-Stone mill. Many talk of the need to fill those buildings but there is another Main Street property that hasn't received much attention since becoming idle over a decade ago.

James Mallory/Northern Light Photo

The former Twin Cinema at 176 Main Street has been vacant since 1996 with no indications of that changing anytime soon.

The Bathurst Twin Cinemas, located on the first floor of a building that houses the Max 104.9 radio station upstairs, shut its doors in September 1996 due to lack of business. The silver screen returned to Bathurst in 2000 when the Apollo Cinema opened on Ste. Anne Street but downstairs at 176 Main St. has not been transformed into any other venture, business or otherwise.

Jim Ross is chairman of Ross Ventures Ltd, a Fredericton-based real estate company which owns the building. He said there have been no offers in recent years.

"There really has been very little," he said last week. "We've been very discouraged and I guess it relates to the economy of the area. We have not had very much at all in way of serious interest.

"We wish there were (inquires) We'd like to either develop it for somebody or put it in a state of use or sell it. But to this point, it's pretty quiet."

Mr. Ross said the few inquiries over the years have centralized around office space.

"The main thing would be, I think, to develop the building more for supplementary office space. I don't think and am not aware that anybody had planned to use the theatres."

Mr. Ross said as a safety precaution, the two theatres have been gutted with seating and other amenities removed. He noted that a maintenance worker regularly checks up on the property to make sure everything is up to code.

The Downtown Bathurst Revitalization Corporation is one group that would welcome a new business in that location but they said it's out of their hands.

"This is a private deal. We've had inquiries in the past but there's nothing active now," said Bob Anderson, general manager of the DBRC.

Mayor Stephen Brunet said bringing downtown Bathurst back to life is a must for the city and added that 179 Main St. is part of that equation. He said with the federal and provincial governments offering infrastructure money for communities affected by mill closures, such as Dalhousie and Bathurst, an avenue could be opened for the former cinemas property

"I'm hoping that there's some monies from the provincial government like that went to Dalhousie would come to us and those monies would help with infrastructure. If infrastructure means that we can purchase properties that could be developed, I would hope that that would fall into that category. The monies are to be used for the redevelopment of towns and cities that have lost their mills and I think that this would be an easy case to build up for help with that whole area downtown."

Mr. Brunet concluded that the city and DBRC are looking to become more active in this file.

"The city met with the DBRC and we are going to start working at this a little more wholeheartedly," he said.