The walls came tumbling down at Citadel Mews West this week as demolition of the fire-ravaged property finally began.
Wrecking crews started work on the Citadel Mews West building in northern St. Albert on Nov. 25. Using backhoes and skid-steers, they had the scorched south end of the building reduced to a mangled mountain of wood and metal by Nov. 29.
A huge fire swept through this building in May 2021, which was once a 95-unit assisted and independent living seniors’ complex developed by Christenson Developments. The fire displaced close to 110 residents as well as another 129 from the adjacent Citadel Care Centre. While those residents later moved back or found new homes, Citadel Mews West itself has remained frozen in time ever since, unoccupied and locked off behind fences and fluttering tarps.
In September 2023, Greg Christenson, president of Christenson Developments, told the Gazette that his company planned to demolish Citadel Mews West and rebuild it as an active adult luxury complex at some point.
New owner, new plan
Christianson Developments sold the building to the Nova Group of Companies last September, said Joe Martins, architect/designer with Nova Builders (a branch of the Nova Group, which owns about 26 hotels in Canada, including the Edmonton Inn). Martins and his team were now knocking down the old building to make way for a new one.
Brody Hoff, the McColman and Sons Demolition project manager overseeing the demolition, said his crews planned to spend three months knocking down and hauling away the building, leaving the foundations and parking garage behind. Crews have started with the building’s south end and plan to work their way north. While they would sort and recycle what they could, Hoff said most of the rubble was destined for the landfill.
“It’s been left exposed to the elements for so long that nothing’s really salvageable inside.”
Martins and Hoff said area residents should expect the usual construction-related noises throughout the demolition, with about four people and four dump-trucks on site on any day.
Martins said his team was now designing an apartment-style condo complex to replace Citadel Mews West. Details such as number of units were still in the works, but Martins said the new building would have the same height and footprint as the old one, as well as ground-floor commercial outlets. He hoped to apply for the necessary construction permits within the next 12 months and to have the new building open by 2026.
Gurdeep Singh, who manages Olympia Liquor just east of Citadel Mews West, said he was glad to see the demolition work begin.
“We been waiting so long. It’s been three and a half years.”
Singh said he hoped the new building would bring back some of the customer traffic he lost when the old one burned down.
Martins said questions on the demolition project should go to Nova Builders at 780-702-6682. He emphasized that Nova had nothing to do with the legal disputes that had emerged around life leases and Christianson Developments in the wake of the 2021 fire and could not comment on them.