Courtesy Facebook
Concerns have been raised about Riverview’s Chocolate River Station ever since a twin-tower apartment complex was proposed for the site earlier this year.
A staff report prepared for Riverview Town Council shows the facility has been a money-losing venture since it opened in 2010.
Riverview CAO Colin Smith says things didn’t go as planned from the beginning when three businesses initially opened their doors – Ganong, Olivier Soapery and Briggs Maple.
“The tourism and bus traffic did not materialize… that did not occur at the time and businesses started leaving fairly quickly. Ganong was the first to leave and the Soapery followed relatively shortly after,” he notes.
Smith says further efforts to hire professional firms to recruit tenants did not work.
He adds existing tenants struggled and some often left owning the town money on their leases.
A number of misconceptions have also come forward since a private developer proposed the new apartment complex.
Smith says fears the town would lose riverfront access if a proposed private development goes ahead are simply not true noting how the town owns the land for the trail.
Another misconception is that erosion will cause the new building to fall into the river.
But Smith adds engineers will address the structural integrity of the project and it simply won’t be built there if it doesn’t work.
The Town of Riverview would stand to gain about $500,000 per year in property tax revenue from the proposed apartment complex.
