Office, apartments in works for vacant building on Rosser

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This building at 701 Rosser Ave. seen in April 2014 changed ownership last fall. The new owners plan to renovate the building into an engineering office and construct three apartments on a second storey, which was removed under previous ownership.

A downtown eyesore that has remained vacant and boarded up for years will be given a new lease on life.

The building at the corner of Seventh Street and Rosser Avenue has changed hands, and the new owners plan to renovate the building into an engineering office and construct three apartments on a second storey.

"Its extremely important to get something going, its a high traffic corner," said city manager Scott Hildebrand. "Now that we have a new owner and a strategy and plan going forward Im excited that we can actually get that converted and move on to the next project downtown."

The small building at 701 Rosser Ave. was formerly the Chicken Corner restaurant. In 2012, it was sold to Huangpu Assiniboine Holdings Ltd. and major renovations began, including the removal of the entire second storey.

At that time, the plan was to establish a new restaurant with a rooftop patio. But the project came to a halt and the building has sat vacant ever since.

In an effort to deal with the languishing property, the City of Brandon gave the former property owners a deadline to provide detailed drawings of their plans or else face orders through a building safety and vacant/derelict building bylaw.

Hildebrand said the property ended up changing hands last fall, and is now at the permit stage.

"Work should begin immediately if these plans are approved," he said.

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Office, apartments in works for vacant building on Rosser