The Royal Canadian Legion is selling the bottom floor of its new building in a bid to stay afloat.
"Our goal is to stratify the building and keep the top," said Sandi Patterson, the building opportunities chairperson.
The Legion has been entertaining offers for several months, and on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. the members are meeting to give approval of an offer of purchase for the lower floor.
"That meeting is going to be concerning the potential sale of the bottom of the building," Patterson said. "We need to let our members know what's going on."
The lower floor is slightly less than 4,000 square feet and the Legion has been renting it out to the community for events, and using it for meetings and bingo.
But the rentals and the building haven't proven financially feasible.
"We're unable to make the bottom of the building viable," said Patterson.
Having a two-storey building has been expensive in terms of things like heating and electricity costs, Patterson said.
"We are in financial trouble. In order to maintain a Legion we'll have to have a smaller premise," she said.
The plan to sell has been in the works for months as a last resort to generate revenue. On May 18, 2004, the Legion members voted to sell the building and land in Garibaldi Village if there was no other way to raise money.
The Legion's old building was dismantled in 2000 after the Legion sold its land to Canadian Development Properties to develop Garibaldi Village, then purchased half an acre on the site on which it built the new building, which opened in 2002.
The Legion has had other financial troubles. In June the Legion asked Squamish council for a grant of $15,000 but did not specify what it needed the money for. They were awarded the full amount.It was the second time the Legion asked for money from council. It requested $14,261.12 during the budget deliberations in February but it was denied.
