‘The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, once again the owner of its Ontario Street property after buying it back from a developer, has started an ambitious $500,000 fundraising campaign.
The funds are needed after Patry Inc. Developments owned the property from 2016 to 2019. The heritage building was without power for those three years, a situation that is believed to have led to extensive damage inside the facility.
“The campaign is to address the immediate and urgent repairs that are needed at our (Kingston Dry Dock) National Historic Site property on Ontario Street,” museum chair Chris West said in an interview on Thursday.’
‘The property was purchased in its current state late in the summer of 2019 after the museum received a multimillion-dollar donation from Kingston businessman and philanthropist Brit Smith.
“When we bought the property, we bought it as is,” West said. It had lain vacant for three years — we knew that — but since acquiring the property and bringing in the various trades to look at the electrical, heating, plumbing, safety and fire and all of it, there’s a big job that has to be done.”’
