* Today: Steve Peters on Alma College (page two)

* Friday: Our Alma – An Open Letter to Aileen Carroll – Part III

The example of social media I posited to demonstrate three posts ago is fairing poorly. I am attempting to save one of Heritage Canada Foundation’s Top Ten most endangered buildings and it’s far more complicated than I anticipated.

I suggested then, that the digital tools available to me, were sufficient to raise awareness of, and support for, Alma College – I thought it would happen virally. So far, I’m wrong.

I’ve done my research and as best I can tell, there’s a total lack of leadership shown on Alma College. Three levels of government are saying they’re content letting the old thing fall to the ground. They say, it’ll be too expensive to buy ($2 million or so), make structural sound (at least $20 million) and not worth the cost or bother.

I sit in the other camp – I don’t like tearing down my city’s heritage because three governments can’t muster the courage to at least consider the destruction they are permitting. I don’t get it. Isn’t government supposed to give voice to the wishes of the people supporting it?
There are at least 560 people signed up to save Alma College on Facebook. My blog gets its most, albeit limited traffic, because of the topic. Here’s the rub, to those reading and asking what they can do?

One first needs to convince the Ontario Minister of Culture to stay the execution of Alma College for sixty days. One then needs to find out how much it will cost, raise the money for, then buy Alma College. At the same time, one will be required to find a tenant – I suggest the now disinterested liberal arts university group – and convince governments to provide the funds to stabilize and use the structure.

I recognized the importance of promoting my efforts in traditional media and published a letter to the editor in the St. Thomas Times-Journal (the TJ). I take my cues to social media from mainstream conversation.

I dropped the ball, however, on maintaining momentum with this project – Saturday could be the last day for Alma College and I haven’t even posted my interview with former Alma College archivist, Elgin-London-Middlesex MPP Steve Peters.

National Exposure Needed to Save Alma College

George Zubick is the main obstacle facing those interested in preserving Alma College, says Elgin-London-Middlesex MPP, Steve Peters. “If something positive is going to happen, that site has to get out of his hands. You don’t have a willing owner – you have an owner who wants out of this thing.”

Zubick and Brian Squires created Alma Heritage Estates in 1998 with the intent of turning Alma College into a high-end seniors residence. “Originally, there was a sense of good will,” Peters explains, “They had this grand image and they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies trying to support it. Unfortunately, none of that ever became a reality.”

Around 2004, Zubick lost interest in his vision of what Alma Heritage Estates could be. “The moment that happened, instead of becoming an asset to the group, Alma College became a liability. In my opinion, that’s when everything went off track,” Peters says.

According to Peters, the $64,000 question is, how much does Zubick want for Alma College? “I’ve never seen an asking price for that property. I hear it’s for sale, but I’ve never, ever seen, how much it costs.”

The Alma College Foundation, hoping to found a liberal-arts university at the site, is the only group that has so far approached Zubick to purchase the property, but the relationship between the two is acrimonious – to date, no deal has been made.

Peters explains that “somebody else needs to sit down with Zubick because he doesn’t trust the Alma College Foundation. Somebody else needs to ask him, how much for you to walk from this project? How do you get the ownership of the site from Zubick to the Foundation? You get a middleman to go to Zubick and say, ‘how much?’”

It can all start with a call, suggests Peters. “Pick up the phone and talk to George Zubick, or his lawyer Alan Patton. Say, for starters, “I don’t have any money, but I’d be prepared to go and try and find it. How much do you need?””

Even if Zubick was willing to sell Alma College, where will the money come from to truly develop the property? “I saw an engineering report on the building,” says Peter. “It was pretty clear. Fifteen million minimum to simply stabilize it.” Even that number was produced a few years ago.

National, even international exposure is needed to find the necessary funds to develop the property, says Peters. “Get an article in the National Post. Get an article in the Globe and Mail. You need to find a sugar daddy that says, “what an opportunity!” I don’t think anybody’s done that.”

Time, however, is quickly running out. A permit to demolish Alma College can be issued as soon as mid-March. Then, the only thing standing in the way of the school’s demise is Ontario’s Minister of Culture, Aileen Carroll. “The moment the demolition permit gets issued,” says Peters, “the minister, upon appeal from a citizen, or a group of citizens, can exercise the right to stay it for sixty days – exactly like was done with the Moore House.”