A long-time fixture along the shores of the Mamquam Blind Channel is gone, after the Cozy Motor Inn was torn down last week.
The building, which was seen as a valuable addition to Squamish when it was erected 50 years ago, was razed to help with sale of the one-acre property.
"There wasn't a lot of value in the building," said Natasha Butenko, who is overseeing the sale along with Vancouver-based commercial realtor Eugen Klein. But that wasn't always the case. The construction of the hotel creating a great deal of excitement in the mid 1950's, according to Coun. Corinne Lonsdale.
"It was pretty exciting when that got built," said Lonsdale.
"It was a pretty big day for Squamish when we got another hotel in town," said Lonsdale, who noted that it was constructed at approximately the same time as the Garibaldi Motor Inn on Victoria St.
However, over the years the luster of the building has worn off and potential buyers were more attracted to the location than the hotel itself.
"The property is assessed at over $1.2 million," said Butenko.
She said that District of Squamish policies are making that sale increasingly difficult.
"It's zoned for hotel, motel a bus station, there are a few options. But there's no residential zoning and we're trying to talk to the city to get that rezoned, but the city is very slow. There's a huge backlog in rezoning and development in the city."Every commercial realtor in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland knows about this."
However, Mayor Ian Sutherland denied that Squamish's development process is any slower than other communities.
"In regards to zoning we're in the same ballpark as every other community," said Sutherland, adding that complaints about the speed of the rezoning process are a common real estate negotiation tactic.
"If you're the mayor of any community, the first thing you hear from realtors is that the town you're running is too slow compared to everyone else," said Sutherland. "Everyone of our staff is working hard and is more than capable of handling these issues.
"Developers will try to put pressure on you to speed up by saying your community is getting a bad reputation.
"For good reason [Planning director] Cameron [Chalmers] doesn't play that game, and I don't play that game."
Sutherland said that the parcel is a challenging one to rezone, because of its location near the channel and its proximity to the Red Point residential development.
"Most of the time when things are going slowly it's because it's a challenging property."
Property owners are currently still in the inquiry portion of the process and have yet to file a rezoning application, according to district staff.
