A West End community group will hold protests on Friday and Saturday (July 30 and 31) at 1215 Bidwell Street, a heritage building slated to become the location of a new apartment tower.

Randy Helten told the Straight that West End Neighbours will host “a series of surprise events” from around 6 p.m. until dusk on both days.

“The theme is a wake, as it’s the end of an era for the heritage building [that houses Maxine’s Hideaway restaurant],” the spokesperson for the group said via cellphone. “The faí§ade will be protected, but the spirit will be gone.”

Last December, the Vision Vancouver–dominated city council voted to rezone the lot to allow construction of a 20-storey building with rental and condo units as part of the Short Term Incentives for Rental Housing program.

At a now-infamous July 8 meeting of council’s planning and environment committee, Helten was the first speaker to voice concerns about Mayor Gregor Robertson’s new West End Community Advisory Committee, which is meant to engage the West End community around development in the area. Helten spoke about the “cumulative” impacts of spot rezonings such as the one at 1215 Bidwell before a recess in which the mayor’s F-bomb and diatribe on whether or not speakers were “NPA hacks” were caught on a recording.

On July 27, Helten, artist and West End resident Tiko Kerr, and community activist Carole Walker met with Robertson and Vision councillors Tim Stevenson and Andrea Reimer about development in the neighbourhood.

“It was a polite meeting, but the three of us walked out feeling we had not really come out of there with anything new—so nothing new,” Helten said. “They did express how they are frustrated with the challenges of dealing with development pressures in the city, and trying to balance that with community opinion.”

Helten confirmed that he owns an apartment in the West End. He added that his mother owns a top-floor apartment close to Maxine’s and his brother owns a unit at a site close to St. John’s United Church, a site at 1401 Comox Street that is the subject of a development proposal.

On July 28, Reimer told the Straight that the meeting was held at Helten’s request.

“It was somewhat unclear as to what action items he wanted out of it that were new or different, so I guess I would agree [with Helten],” Reimer said via cellphone. “My sense was that we might have delved a little deeper into ground we’ve already gone over, but no new ground.”