Council sets the stage for sale of Seymour Street property

City Council has designated the portion of property that the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce used to call home as “surplus land”, setting the stage for the Seymour Street sale. 

The local politicians came to the conclusion after a private in-camera session at the end of last week’s council meeting, allowing the property at 1375 Seymour Street at Highway 11/17 to be prepared for an invitation to tender in the near future. 

“Council has deemed that as surplus, so we’re going to go out to tender,” Mayor Al McDonald said after the vote. “First we’re going to rezone it so that it becomes land that developers can use - it will probably be a retail situation such as Home Depot - but I don’t know what that might be.”

After operating and managing the Regional Tourist Information Centre and Dionne Quints Museum for 29 years, the North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce were granted permission from council to terminate their lease with the city at the Seymour property at the end of August. 

Moving to their new downtown location was catalyzed by a steady decline in the number of visitors to the Tourist Information Centre and Dionne Quints Museum and a shift in modern day tourism trends, calling to question the value of both to the Chamber. 

“It’s a prime location in our city and I think it should be put to good use so we can collect some revenue to offset some of the expenses that we have as a city,” said McDonald. 

“But the land is valuable - it’s appraised at over $975,000 and we’re going to tender it out,” he added, “so not only do we get that kind of money into our coffers, reserves and investments, but we will also receive assessment from taxes from whoever decides to build on that location.”

The decision is also the next step in determining the future of the Dionne Quints Museum, which features the original Dionne homestead with Quintuplet artifacts, photographs and memorabilia. 

Last month, the current owners of the former Dionne Farmstead property in Corbeil, Roch Legros and Russell Robinson of North Bay, offered to accommodate the relocation of the homestead to its original site at no cost. 

In their letter to the community, the pair also offered to put forward $10,000 of their own money to help fund the move while proposing that a non-profit charitable organization be formed to raise the remaining funds to help move, situate, maintain and operate the operation in the future. 

“I’m very supportive of that [idea], but those conversations are still ongoing,” said McDonald. “The quints museum is one of those things that still has to be looked after; Coun. [Mark] King has taken the lead with what we’re going to do with it.” 

As the Chamber’s move announcement stated, they too “continue to work together to find an appropriate solution for the assets of the museum; not forgetting to mention the valuable asset the City has in the property and building, it has great potential for an alternate use.”