Facility on shipyard site to include retail and commercial development
Gerry Bellett
Sun
National Maritime Centre for the Pacific and Arctic plans were announced Wednesday at Lonsdale Quay by North Vancouver City Mayor Darrell Mussatto. Proponents hope to locate the facility on the old shipyard site and combine it with residential and hotel projects. Photograph by : Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun
A $32-million National Maritime Centre that might eventually replace Vancouver’s Maritime Museum is being proposed for the former Burrard Shipyards site near Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.
North Vancouver City Mayor Darrell Mussatto announced the proposal Wednesday, saying it could be completed in time for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
“The location is ideal from a historical and heritage standpoint,” said the mayor.
“It would be located at the centre of Canada’s largest and busiest port and within clear view of downtown Vancouver –the nation’s gateway to the Pacific and Asia.”
He said the site is important because a significant part of B.C.’s shipbuilding industry was once located there and historic ships such as the RCMP vessel St. Roch — now the centrepiece of the Vancouver Maritime Museum — was constructed at the shipyard.
The National Maritime Centre for the Pacific and Arctic would be a major addition to the waterfront, and a prime attraction, said the mayor.
The city is prepared to put up $10 million in land and services to back the proposal and would seek financing from the provincial and federal governments and private industry.
The announcement was made in front of a crowd of more than 100 people, including federal and provincial politicians, officials from the three North Shore municipalities, the shipping industry and such agencies as the Vancouver Port Authority.
Hotel, retail, and commercial development would also be available on the 80,000 square foot site, which would have deep-water moorage and 213 metres of public pier space for the centre and visiting vessels.
Mussatto said the next step is to compile a business plan for the development to show it would be economically viable and able to turn a profit after two years’ operation.
“We have to do a proper business plan to make sure it will be self-funding, then we’ll be working with government and private industry to bring it about,” he said.
“We think it will cost about $32 million and we’re looking at a one third-one third-one third split between us, government and private industry,” he said.
“This will bring business and tourism to the area and will be a real jewel in the crown, having it in North Vancouver.”
What it all means for the future of the Vancouver Maritime Museum “remains to be seen,” said museum executive director James Delgado, who supports the proposal.
“The museum will remain open. This is an exciting project. It’s not the relocation of the Vancouver Maritime Museum — this is something completely new,” he said.
The present site of the museum at Kitsilano Point doesn’t provide sufficient space to display its collection, he said, and the site suffers from lack of access because it is in a park surrounded by a residential area.
A City of Vancouver study done in 1997 recommended a new site be found and a major rebuild be undertaken to meet the public’s expectations.
As for repatriating St. Roch, the first vessel to travel the Northwest Passage in both directions, Delgado said that is a question that would need to be decided by Vancouver.
“The St. Roch and the large collection of material in the museum all belong to the City of Vancouver,” he said.
© The Vancouver Sun 2
