The former United Canadian Malt building at Lansdowne and Park streets could soon be torn down unless city council moves to protect it on Monday — a move that the developer calls unfair.

"It's indicative of the immaturity and inexperience of city council: I found out about this today," said developer David McGee on Thursday.

It's unfair of the city to try to "encumber" him, he added: "I'm not having the city tell me what I can and cannot do with my building, which was bought with hard-earned money — it doesn't work like that."

A demolition permit has already been issued on the Art Deco industrial building from 1931, which brothers David and J.R. McGee bought three years ago after malt operations ceased in the building.

There's no heritage designation on the building.

But city council will discuss a staff proposal Monday to put a heritage designation in place; should councillors decide to do that, the demolition permit is void.

The Malt building is located at the intersection of Park and Lansdowne streets, across from Home Depot.

The McGee brothers run the Jack McGee car dealership on Clonsilla Ave., and they're also developers. In late 2016, they announced plans to convert the factory into high-end apartments.

But on Thursday, David McGee said it's "very, very expensive" to follow that plan: "It's actually less expensive to tear it down and build a brand new structure."

McGee said he and his brother weren't sure what they'd do with the property, following demolition, but they were still planning three new apartment buildings on nine acres of vacant land they own to the west along Lansdowne Street.

However if council places a heritage designation on the Malt building, he said, they might just shelve all plans until the next municipal election and try again.

McGee says he still loves the Malt building, but he doesn't think city council has any business telling him what to do with it.

Meanwhile there's already been demolition on the property: in October 2018, the brick smokestack of the former factory was torn down.

City staff recommends a heritage designation after consulting with the Peterborough Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee which discussed it at a meeting under new business on Nov. 7.

Heritage designations stop "unwarranted demolition" and controls alterations that might mar historical features on a building, the report states.

City staff recommends a designation that would preserve the heritage attributes of the exterior "while allowing the interior to be freely renovated for a new use," the report explains.

The Malt building was erected in 1931 from the design of the Toronto architectural firm Chapman & Oxley, the report states.

It was designed as a factory for the A. Wander Company Ltd., the producer of Ovaltine and other foods such as Poppycock candied popcorn.

In 1988, the building was bought by United Canadian Malt Co., which extracted malt from barley, wheat, oats and rice for use as a sweetener in foods.

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For years they relied on the CP Rail line as a way of receiving the grain needed to produce malt. But the train line stopped running in October 2014, which meant the end of operations.

joelle.kovach

@peterboroughdaily.com