Structural repairs are underway at Langford's Danbrook One rental building

Langford, B.C. -

After standing vacant for almost two years due to structural deficiencies that led it to be deemed unsafe, the Danbrook One apartment building in Langford is being repaired.

In 2019, the 11-storey rental building had its occupancy permit revoked by the City of Langford after an independent review of the building’s engineering found it was unsafe for the more than 200 residents who were living there. Tenants in the 90-unit development were forced to vacate their homes just weeks before Christmas.

The mayor of the West Shore community says construction crews have made good progress on structural repairs during the past month and he is looking forward to residents returning to the Claude Road rental development.

“We’ll do our part to assure the building is safe and our occupancy permit will go out when that’s done,” said Langford Mayor Stew Young. “It’s a key building, it’s a great location in our downtown core, so its important to get it back up and running.”

Young says he is unaware of the specifics of the work being done to make the building structurally safe, but he understands the work underway will rectify engineering deficiencies.

“It was such a great building when we opened it and then we found the were some structural engineering problems with it,” said Young. “This is about engineers getting together and solving a problem that an engineer created in the first place.”

“We’re looking for them to get this done and solved so we can have this building available for housing people in Langford,” he said.

Young says with all the work that is being done to repair the building, it will be a safe building.

CTV News reached out to Centurion Property Associates, owners of the Danbrook One, for comment on the structural repairs currently underway, but did not receive a reply.

“Centurion is a big company and they have a lot of buildings across Canada,” said Young. “We’ll work with them whenever we can to help them get this building up and open.”

Young says he expects the repair work to be completed in early 2022. He says the City of Langford could be issuing and occupancy permit as soon as late April 2022, with tenants moving into the building shortly after.