The Canadian Canoe Museum is purchasing the Johnson Park property in Peterborough’s East City for $1,575,000.
The museum and the City of Peterborough announced the conditional purchase and sale of the property — which will be the site of the museum’s new facility — on Friday (January 29).
The five-acre property is located at 2077 Ashburnham Drive in Peterborough, north of Beavermead Park, between Marsdale Drive and Maria Street.
On Monday, Peterborough city council approved the direction to proceed with the sale of the land subject to conditions including rezoning, project validation, and confirmation of site appropriateness. The sale is expected to close by the summer, according to the museum.
The museum will be selling its current property at 910 Monaghan Road to help fund the new build project.
The museum’s new facility was originally going to be located beside the Peterborough Lift Lock on property owned by Parks Canada, with a design by Heneghan Peng Architects of Dublin. In October 2020, the museum abandoned both the original location and design after an independent investigation by the museum in May determined the site contains the chemical compound trichloroethylene (TCE), along with a variety of other chemicals.
The museum’s new facility in East City will be designed by Lett Architects of Peterborough.
“In less than a year we’ve moved from walking away from a contaminated site to forming a new build project team and identifying and securing an alternate location,” says Carolyn Hyslop, the museum’s executive director. “The purchase of a viable new site puts our project firmly on-track to be shovel-ready by the end of this year.”
The new museum will be built on a flat portion of the Johnson property, away from the floodplain, on the open land along Ashburnham Drive. The existing trail, shoreline, and natural waterfront to the west of the property will be preserved, the museum says.
