Two landmark properties in downtown Maple Ridge are on the selling block.
The Haney Hotel, with its view of the Haney Bypass and Lougheed Highway, has been listed for $13.8 million. That offers 222,000 sq. feet of possible buildable area. The listing also offers a possible leasing arrangement for a new owner of the hotel, pub and liquor store operation.
Meanwhile, across the street, 10 lots are on the market for $10 million.
That property, which includes the Mussallem Motors site, has been for sale for the past few years.
The family owners now want to ramp up efforts to sell the land, said Dave Mussallem.
Ron Antalek, a realtor, said the properties on Lougheed Hwy. offer potential for commercial and residential high-rise towers.
“It [Mussallem Motors] has great potential and so does the Haney Hotel site.”
Price increases in the past few years have now made it feasible to build concrete towers in Maple Ridge, he added.
That would increase population density and improve the downtown, helping businesses and generating more taxes, he said.
Maple Ridge’s town centre area plan, passed several years ago, calls for increased population density and a more walkable community.
Antalek said if there weren’t the price increases of the last three years, nobody would be having the conversation about concrete high rises.
“It’s great for the community. It’s great for the density that everybody has passionately wanted for the town core,” he added.
“But it wouldn’t be happening if we didn’t have these price increases because it wasn’t economically viable.”
Yvan Charette, with the Haney Hotel, Caddy Shack and the Haney Public House, said he and the property co-owner decided to put the property on the market a few weeks ago, just to see what kind of response is received.
“We’re in no rush.”
But, he added, it might take a while to find a buyer, with markets rising and falling. Ideally, the best scenario is for him to lease back the business, from the new owner, for a period of time.
“Anything on our site is minimum five years away, with the way things proceed,” he said.
“Bascially, we just threw out a line to see if somebody would bite … and that’s it.”
The issue of homelessness has literally surrounded the business for years, most notably to the west in 2015, when the Cliff Avenue homeless camp was set up on the other side of the Haney Bypass. When the camp was disbanded, the temporary emergency shelter in the old mattress shop was directly across from the Haney Hotel. Anita Place Tent City is just one block down on 223rd Street.
Dave Mussallem said his property, composed of 10 lots that stretch up to Selkirk Avenue and the former mattress shop, has been for sale for several years, but now there’s a renewed effort.
“It’s a matter of seeing something nice happen there that’s good for the city,” said Mussallem.
His grandfather Solomon Mussallem built both Mussallem Motors and a year later, in 1948, the Haney Hotel. But his grandmother didn’t want his grandfather involved in the liquor business, so it was sold two years later.
“We’ve gotten serious now about it. It’s hard to assemble a large piece of land in the downtown.
“It would be nice if somebody bought the hotel property and ours, could really do a nice, big project.”
Meanwhile, a proposal before council last year to develop seven acres on the northwest corner of Dewdney Trunk Road and 224th Street could start this summer, said Coun. Gordy Robson.
The plan includes four apartment highrises, the tallest 19 storeys, and numerous commercial and residential buildings over seven phases.
The development is a partnership between Bruce Johnston, Tom Meier and SwissReal Group.