The Ridge’s days are numbered

The cinema and its bowling-alley neighbour face the wrecking ball.

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      The birthplace of the Vancouver International Film Festival is about to disappear, along with the other tenants of the strip mall on Arbutus Street between West 15th and 16th avenues. Cressey Development Group bought the block-long property in June 2011 and plans to build condos on the site.

      George Mah, the general manager of Festival Cinemas, operator of the 1950s-era movie house, said he knows it’s just a matter of time.

      “We have a demolition clause in our lease, so the landlord can give us a notice and we’d be out of there,” Mah told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “There’s no room for a theatre in there anymore.”

      The Ridge has a lease until September 2013. Cressey can use the demolition clause after it gets a development permit from city hall. “It would mean the end of the Ridge,” Mah said.

      Cressey is building a five-storey mixed-use development that will contain 52 homes and about 20,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

      According to vice-president Hani Lammam, the project doesn’t require a rezoning. This means it won’t need council approval after a requisite public hearing. “We are building within our rights in our property,” Lammam told the Straight by phone. He noted that the site’s density permits a floor-space ratio of 2.5, meaning that the total floor area of the building can be two-and-a-half times the area of the property on which it’s built.

      According to a public notice released by the city, Cressey is building more than 80,000 square feet. The development will feature 89 commercial parking spaces and 95 parking slots for residents and their visitors.

      A petition is making the rounds to save the Ridge, as well as another 1950s-vintage establishment in the strip mall: the Varsity-Ridge 5 Pin Bowling Centre.

      “I bought it in 1981,” bowling-alley owner Ken Hayden told the Straight in a phone interview. “I’ve been here since 1981. Myself, my wife, and my sister Gail are here all the time, running it as a family.” That day, Hayden was set to go to City Hall to submit a list of about 3,000 signatures from people who want the theatre and the bowling alley to stay.

      “They’ve been here so long, they’re just part of the community,” he said.

      A separate online petition specific to the Varsity bowling centre talks about what it would mean to lose the facility. “Varsity has 25 weekly leagues with over 700 bowlers between the ages of 3 to 99(!),” the appeal reads. “Many people bowl multiple times a week, especially seniors, as a means to socialize and be active. Removing the lanes will not only affect these bowlers, but also the thousands of community members like you who bowl for fun, birthdays, fundraisers, stags/stagettes, work parties, rainy day recreation, the list goes on…”

      The petition notes that places like Varsity keep Vancouver’s neighbourhoods connected. “Let’s not lose it,” it pleads.

      The city’s development-permit board will take up Cressey’s permit application in a meeting on July 30.

      “We have fulfilled our commitment to them as tenants, and they are continuing to stay there for the time being until we’re ready to redevelop,” Cressey’s Lammam said. According to him, the Ridge’s operator has acknowledged that the show is almost over. “I have some correspondence, for example, from our theatre tenant that since they are unable to invest in upgrading their facility, it’s not a viable business for them going forward,” he said. “They know that their days are numbered, and it’s not economical for them to continue to operate with the existing space that they have and the equipment that they have.”

      Lammam added that the situation applies to Varsity as well: “There has been no investment in that facility for many years. And again, it’s at the end of its life.”

      Comments

      16 Comments

      election

      Jun 13, 2012 at 3:59pm

      a truly world class city... am i right

      jonny .

      Jun 13, 2012 at 4:26pm

      I am so sad. Where will I watch Rocky Horror Picture Show every Halloween from now on?!

      perrier pete

      Jun 13, 2012 at 5:30pm

      another landmark disappears for high priced condos for city dwellers. Bravo.

      Be a Man

      Jun 13, 2012 at 6:50pm

      People will be paying top dollar to live next... what exactly? Pretty soon Vancouver will just be a dense suburb; condos on top of Starbucks and Safeway. I'm all for well-thought-out urbanization, but you can't kill the city in order to do it.

      Save Vancouver

      Jun 13, 2012 at 7:27pm

      As if Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver care about a petition or what residents think - after all there's money to be made here for their deveoper buddies!

      Chocological

      Jun 13, 2012 at 7:33pm

      There are adult children in Vancouver, my kids included, who "watched" their first films from the crying room upstairs, in the arms of grateful pops and moms. What a loss. :-(

      Diana C

      Jun 13, 2012 at 8:20pm

      I admit I've only gone to one movie at the Ridge in the past 20 years, so it's not like I'm supporting it. I did spend years at the bowling alley, however, as did my Mom and currently a number of family friends still do. I totally disagree with the developer's comment about the Varsity bowling, "There has been no investment in that facility for many years. And again, it’s at the end of its life.” It's a FIVE PIN BOWLING ALLEY. What kind of investment does it need? They have a working facility with plenty of customers, why do they need to pump money into it? Ignorant comment that totally put me off the developer (if I wasn't already).

      Natty

      Jun 13, 2012 at 8:48pm

      Growing up in that area, I have a lot of memories of both Varsity Bowling (glow bowling Saturday nights) and The Ridge (Spike and Mike's animation fest). It's really shameful that both these landmarks will disappear without any real opportunity for residents to give input. That being said, I did sign Ken and Judy's petition and I encourage others to do the same whether or not it makes a difference in the end.

      Doctor

      Jun 14, 2012 at 8:59am

      Diana's C. makes a good point. Cressey's Lamman seems to think that a community landmark is somewhat like a car - it gets old enough and then it should go off to the junk-yard. It's this type of logic that has contributed to the evisceration of Vancouver's architectural and community heritage. With these landmarks gone, we increasingly loose sight and memory of the specific value of our city. Vancouver just becomes another souless place.

      Fiona Phillips

      Jun 14, 2012 at 10:46am

      More Condos! More Shopping! Yay! I LOVE Vancouver! Who needs landmarks? Who needs places where communities gather (except, of course, for shopping?) Who needs places where you can say "I remember coming here as a kid...as a university student...we used to bring you kids here...?" Who needs heritage or continuity? Bah to that I say! Vancouver has bigger fish to fry!