January 8, 2008

DAN O’REILLY

John Cutruzzola of the Inzola Group spearheaded the $2 million restoration of the Dominion Building, which was built in 1889. The building was designed by Thomas Fuller, architect of Canada’s first parliament buildings.

Historic Preservation

Inzola Group spearheads restoration of Brampton’s Dominion Building

Builder motivated by “sense of responsibility to the community”

DAN O’REILLY

correspondent

After an extensive, painstaking and costly renovation, a landmark downtown Brampton building has been given a new lease on life.

The Dominion Building is being transformed into a mixed-use facility that will house a two-level 5,000-square-foot restaurant and two 3,000-square-foot floors of office space that have already been leased.

While a tenant for the restaurant hasn’t been found, the office portion is scheduled to open in March, says John Cutruzzola, chairman of the Inzola Group, the locally based, family-operated development and construction firm that owns the building and is overseeing the restoration.

“We have a few modifications and leasehold improvements to make,” he says.

The architect is Black & Moffat Architects Inc. and the structural engineer is Ireland Engineering Associates Ltd.

Located in the oldest part of the city at its most significant intersection, Main and Queen Streets, “the Dominion Building is probably Brampton’s most significant heritage building and its most prominent,” says Michael Avis, a member of the Brampton Heritage Board, which had to approved the restoration project.

Designed by Thomas Fuller, the architect of Canada’s first parliament buildings, the Dominion Building was erected in 1889, with a distinctive cupola added in 1906 and a clock tower in 1914. Over the years, it served as Brampton’s Post Office, headquarters for the Brampton Police and offices for the city’s planning department.

But it was sold in the 1970s to a private owner who converted it into a pub. Even though that owner “did a very good job” in converting it, subsequent owners partitioned its spacious floors and allowed it to deteriorate and eventually the building sat vacant for a number of years, says Cutruzzola.

Even though it’s a designated structure under the Ontario Heritage Act, it was in very bad shape when the Inzola Group purchased it in 2003, he says.

“Some load-bearing walls had been removed, the floors were sagging <0x2026> the bricks and stone masonry was sprawling. The roof was in terrible condition. Structurally it was in very bad shape.”

Launched about a year ago the restoration has included completely gutting the building, reinforcing the floors with a combination of steel and wooden beams, installing new period windows — while saving many of the original window panes — the erection of a new metal roof, the construction of a new 400-square-foot addition to house an elevator, plus installing new sprinklers, fire escapes and other emergency life services.

But that’s only part of the restoration work.

Over the course of two to three months the stone exterior front wall and rear and side brick walls were repaired and repointed by Concord-based Maresco Ltd.

One of the most visible — to the public — aspects of the restoration occurred last summer with the piece-by-piece dismantling of the cupola and clock tower by Semple Gooder. It was then rebuilt with new metal components fabricated in its Toronto shop, he says.

The project also included the restoration of the clock by Abernethy & Son, the Canadian agents for the original English manufacturer, Smith of Derby. Having not operated for several years, the clock is now automated, says Cutruzzola.

In addition to preserving the exterior historical look of the building, interior features such as the original oak staircases were also saved, he points out.

While not fully aware of the extent of the deterioration at the time the building was purchased, Cutruzzola. says he would still have bought the building even if he had known.

“I’ve been fairly successful in my life and what I built has to represent a sense of responsibility to the community,” says the developer who was named the city’s Arts Person of the Year for 2004 for his volunteerism in the arts community

As a long-time Brampton resident whose firm built the city’s administration building in the late 1980s, Cutruzzola says he was concerned the Dominion Building would eventually be purchased by speculators who would let the deterioration continue so they could demolish it and replaced with a new structure.

“We’re losing our history and we should all be embarrassed by that,” says Cutruzzola, lamenting both the lack of government incentives to developers to restore heritage buildings and the general apathy of Canadians in general to preserve history.

With the original purchase price and the cost of the restoration estimated at $2 million, Cutruzzola says he probably won’t recoup the investment in his lifetime.

“This building will last another 100 years — that will be my payback.”

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