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Fat Fox building to be demolished within days

The plot thickens on what the future holds for 50 Street now that the owners of the old Diner building are confirming the historic eatery will be demolished within days.

“That building is being demolished and it should be at the end of this week,” said co-owner Brad Good. “We are waiting for the city to mark out electrical and water lines so that we can shut the water off. As soon as that happens, two days after that (it will happen).”

Good, with his wife Lynn Huang, have owned the building for 17 years during which it was called The Diner most of those years. The site has also

Brad Good, co-owner of the Fat Fox building on Range Street at 5008 Range Street, says the structure is set to come down within days. Good hopes to have a new building built on the lot in 18 months and contribute to the revitalization of the street and downtown.

historically been the location of Netty's Diner, Murray's Chicken and a bakery owned by the late Sam Yurkiw, the colourful former owner of the Gold Range Bar. The building was constructed prior to 1950.

In 2014, Huang put The Diner up for sale. It was about six months later when Philip Jefferies, Jeremy Flatt and Emma Atkinson of the Fat Fox coffee shop took interest and rented the building out as the new Fat Fox restaurant in June 2016, Good says.

In May 2018, the coffee shop had to vacate because there was a leaky roof which couldn't be repaired.

Good says it should be no surprise that the building was coming down as they had communicated this fact to the Fat Fox owners when they took occupancy. The coffee shop was only to last two years tops as the owners weren't willing to put any more money into its upkeep, says Good.

“Due to the age of the building and concerns with the building itself, we had an engineer look at it and he estimated it had a life left of anywhere between one year and five years,” he said. “We let the Fat Fox know that.”