The demolition of the Lake City Ford building on Oliver Street this week brings back lots of memories for Ron Ridley, who sold the property three years ago to Wensley Architecture to develop a new business centre.
“I didn’t show up because it wasn’t something I wanted to watch,” said Ridley from his home in Kamloops.
“We bought it in 1976 and then we totally redid it all because we wanted to have a nice place for people to come into,” Ridley recalled, noting they had a grand opening after a major renovation in April 1988. “It was received well.”
Barry Laird, who worked for Lake City Ford and its predecessor Beath Motors, said one part of the building was more than 70 years old.
“The original centre piece came from Wells,” Laird said. “They loaded it on a truck and brought it down and erected it there in 1948. There were four additions put on over the years.”
Crews began the demolition Wednesday morning and Ridley said during the day all three of his daughters — Rhonda, Debbie-Lynn and Leslie-Ann phoned him because they were upset.
“They spent a lot of their lives there,” Ridley said of his daughters’ reactions.
Reflecting on the years he spent running the business in Williams Lake, Ridley insisted the years were good to him and his wife and business partner Fran and that fact took away some of the pain of the demolition.
“That’s the good news. It was good to us.”
Ridley said when they did the renovation 40 years ago, 97 per cent of the final cost was from hiring and buying locally.
“The only thing I brought in was some special furniture that we ordered,” he said. “It was important to keep the work local and I attribute that to a lot of our success.”
Lake City Ford had policies in place for employees to treat customers extra special, he added.
“If someone was disappointed, we gave them their money back because we wanted our customers for life.”
Ridley said they used to hold a trade anything sale, which resulted in customers trading property, boats and even livestock for vehicles.
“People came from all over the province for that,” he said, chuckling.
The company also treated its employees well, making sure to compensate and value them, he added.
At one time there were 120 employees working for the company.
There was the dealership in Williams Lake, one they opened in 100 Mile House and Ron Ridley Rentals Ltd. directly across the street, which Ridley’s son-in-law James Beaulieu has been running for the last 40 years.
In 2006, the Ridleys sold Lake City Ford and Ron and Fran moved away from Williams Lake.
They continued to pay $3,700 a year in property taxes and so when an opportunity emerged to sell it just for the property they decided the time was right.
“There didn’t seem to be any other option,” Ridley said, noting the deal went through three years ago with Wensley Architecture Ltd. but it has taken this long for all the approvals to come through with the City.
“We waited nine months for final approval after the professionals said the site was safe,” he said.
As of this week, Wensley Architecture Ltd. said it is unable to divulge what businesses will be going into the new development.
Read More: Former Lake City Ford building moves one step closer to redevelopment
