| Developer hopes to preserve Depot |
| By Allison Kennedy |
| Enterprise-Bulletin Special (Fri,
January 5, 2000) |
| Suryea Knapman's struggle to keep The Craigleith
Station and the acres of lilacs beside it intact may well be over. |
| Roger Lockhart, a Collingwood-area business man, is
the current owner of the station and surrounding land. |
| In a telephone interview
Wednesday, Lockhart said he hoped plans for development of the land
would satisfy everyone involved. |
| "We hope the town will end up purchasing the
Depot building and additional lands," he told the
Enterprise-Bulletin. |
| Lockhart plans to develop four estate residential
lots with an unobstructed water view and a mountain view. |
| "it is our intent and hope to see homes erected
that would fit with the setting of the Craigleith station,"
said Lockhart. "We hope everybody will be pleased with
the end result." |
| Despite a lot of speculation about the fate of the
station itself, Lockhart said preservation of the building was
important to himself and his realtor Allistair Lessells. |
| "Our intent was to preserve the heritage of the
property," he said." Allistair is very interested in that
as am I. |
| "That's why we extended our valuation of the
property. I also wanted to help the Knapmans who have tried
for so long to preserve the station," Lockhart said.
"I want to see it preserved the way the late Kenn Knapman and
Suryea would like to see it, and the way the community would like to
see it." |
| Knapman, who with her husband Kenn ran The Depot as a
unique restaurant filled with antiques and memorabilia from the are,
sold the property to Roger Lockhart last spring after feeling she
had exhausted all other options. |
| Knapman speaks emotionally of the struggles the
couple endured in getting the business open initially in the late
1960s. |
| "I've been going through cheques that we had
from way back. I can remember every moment of what it took to
get it going. It brings tears to my eyes," said Knapman. |
| he struggles they faced in getting the property
established fade in comparison to the difficulties Knapman has faced
in the last few years, trying to preserve the station. |
| Knapman ran the business on her own after Kenn's
death in 1999, in an effort to keep things going until she could
find a suitable buyer. Her last day of business was October,
27, 2000, exactly 32 years and a day after opening the doors. |
| "There have been many offers to buy the station,
but they've all had conditions I couldn't live with." said
Knapman. |
| In 1999, an offer from a potential buyer died after
their desired 40,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and 135 parking
spaces caused concern with the town council and the public, said
Knapman. |
| "They said it would look like a Scarborough
strip mall," said Knapman. "After that offer, I
decided I would just keep running the business. |
| "Roger Lockhart made offer after offer with
conditions I couldn't accept. At the same time, I spoke with
Mayor Ross Arthur and asked if the town wanted to buy the property,
so it could be preserved," said Knapman. "Arthur
said yes, and they put an offer in. It was a little low and
they were unable to buy the whole property but I considered
accepting it because it would keep the building safe." |
| For Knapman, it cam down to a decision between these
two offers. |
| "While my heart went with the township's offer,
I decided to take Lockhart's offer," said Knapman. |
| "I cam home and I absolutely sobbed," she
said. "Kenn's dream every time we drove by that place was
to save it." |
| Under the terms of the sale, Lockhart is under no
obligation to preserve the building, said Knapman. |
| What will become of the Craigleith Station remains to
be seen but Lockhart said decisions will be made in a public forum. |
| "there will be meetings with the community and
interested parties. We will have to go through the public
process, but hopefully that's the way it will end up and hopefully
Lessels can confirm the plan within 60 to 90 days," said
Lockhart. |
| Chris Fawcett, town manager for The Blue Mountains,
confirmed Thursday that there have been ongoing discussions between
Lockhart and the town but could provide no further details about
those discussions. |
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