MUST READ: Bell Mansion’s new owner shares ‘passion project’ restaurant proposal

Devla Properties Inc. owner Peter Nault headed a public meeting to share his company’s plans for the historic Bell Mansion building, which was built for the pioneering Bell family in 1907

Editor's note: This story was originally published July 6. It is being republished here for anyone who may have missed it last week. Devla Properties Inc. owner Peter Nault has big plans for the historic Bell Mansion property his company purchased from Laurentian University last year for $1.25 million.

Through Devla, he has proposed a fine-dining restaurant on the main and second floors and three Airbnb short-term rental units in the second and third storeys. An open-air gazebo and landscaped section would be open for weddings in the yard, and two residential lots are proposed to be severed along the west of Ramsey Road. Nault joined a handful of experts involved in the project in hosting a public meeting on July 6 to let people know what they’ve proposed.

Sudbury.com spoke with several of the more than 100 people in attendance and found they had mixed feelings about what’s going on with the property. Resident John Rault said it was nice to put the rumour mill at bay by learning what the building’s new owner has actually proposed. He’d heard the two severed lots were going to be high rises, but Nault clarified on July 6 that they’d be earmarked for single-family homes.

“It’s really positive,” he said of the proposal. “All in all, people in Sudbury love dining. ... It’s going to be really nice.

Great idea.” Similar positive sentiment was shared by others who left the public meeting, most of whom declined to share their names. A prevailing point of criticism among many of those in attendance wasn’t directed at the new property owner, but at Laurentian University, which several people in attendance said should have never sold the property to begin with.

Resident Dunstan Topp said the property should have remained a space that people can access without paying, which was Laurentian’s duty in holding the property “in trust.” Resident Nick Dubecki echoed this sentiment, lamenting what Laurentian University has done. Dubecki is an artist who hosted shows in the building when it was still an art gallery.

That said, Dubecki added, “I love the fact they’re going to restore it,” and that he was pleased to see that although the property now has a private owner, they at least appear dedicated to restoring the historic building. In conversation with local journalists prior to the public meeting, Nault said the severance of two west-side lots will be necessary to help pay for the historic building’s renovations. “There’s a hefty price to it,” Nault said.

“The cost to restore this building is so great, we need to recapture some of the cost, because, let’s face it, restaurants are not a high-profit business. We are not doing this restaurant for a profit, we’re just doing it for a passion project.” Although he didn’t have an exact number to ascribe to the project’s cost, he said it’ll easily be “several million.”

The building has fallen into disrepair due to deferred maintenance, he said, and they’ve applied to do some emergency stone and brick work to the structure, which is protected under the Ontario Heritage Act. A crew of masons who specialize in historic buildings are anticipated to be on site as early as next week, pending approvals. Walking journalists through a portion of the building which hasn’t been taped off due to safety concerns, Nault pointed to the ceiling of the main dining hall, noting that the centre would be removed so it opens into a second-storey dining space.

A piano will be set up to entertain patrons, and there’ll be private dining areas available. “We’re looking to go with steak and seafood,” he said of the menu, describing the experience they’re striving to cultivate as “fine dining.” The renovation will encapsulate a mix of modern and heritage, Nault said, clarifying that the vast majority will be heritage.

A newer section of the building which connects the original house to a garage will be torn out and rebuilt. Meanwhile, much of the balance of the building will be opened up to expose original stone and brick work which has been covered up for the past several decades while the building served as home to the Art Gallery of Sudbury. They’ve already opened up some windows which have been sealed off for decades.

As for heritage elements, NPG Planning Solutions senior planner Marcus Létourneau has been enlisted to help ensure its heritage designation is honoured. It received its Ontario Heritage Act designation under outdated ambiguous terms that don’t identify which historic components, exactly, will be preserved under the auspices of the province’s latest standards for historical buildings. “We worked with the city to create a new statement of cultural heritage value or interest with very clear, identified heritage attributes,” Létourneau said, adding that this application will go to city council soon.

“We’ve mapped which areas of the property are important to protect,” he said. “The heritage is informing any of the work going forward.” Last year, city council voted to allow residential use in certain institutional buildings as-of-right, meaning the institutionally zoned Bell Mansion can already accommodate the three residential units which have been proposed.

It does, however, require rezoning in order to add the restaurant use and to have the two residential lots severed, which will need to be approved by the planning committee of city council. In this planning process, a public hearing will also be held at which any member of the public will be eligible to speak. Devla Properties Inc. will commit to building single-family homes on the two residential lots before selling them off, Nault said.

“We’re going to build homes that have the same type of characteristics for the neighbourhood to make sure it blends,” he said. Although still early in the process and pending city council approval of heritage features and rezoning, Nault said that as soon as they get final city approval they’re “going to get shovels in the ground the next day.” Proposed heritage features the developer plans to protect include: - Within the mansion itself: - The general house form -

The asymmetrical massing and varied roof form, including dormers, protruding chimneys and projecting gables - The prominent stone chimneys at the east and west façades, with contrasting stone accents and caps - Two-storey parapeted gable bay at the south façade, and the small south-west bay-windowed sunroom - The dark, rough-faced ashlar local stone, laid in random coursing - The hipped roof form - The one-storey bay window, with stone base, located along the first floor of the east elevation - The rectangular shaped window openings of varying sizes, across the elevations - The light coloured stone sills, brackets, lintels, at all windows - The light coloured stone mullions at all grouped windows - The light coloured stone lintels and brackets at all secondary doors - The roofed veranda with decorative brackets, exposed rafter tails, beadboard ceiling and stone columns and walls - The main entranceway, containing dentils, engaged columns and wood paneling - The main entranceway wood door with four glass windows - Within the stone garage, attached as part of the mansion: - The high-pitched hipped roof with dormers at the east and west sides - The dark, rough-faced stone laid in rubble coursing used to construct the building - The light coloured stone sills and lintels at all windows - The striped pattern created with alternating wood battens and shingles below the roofline - The detached stone secondary building: - The belcast roof with exposed rafter tails, with gables at east and west sides - The dark, rough faced stone laid in rubble coursing used to construct the building - The light coloured stone sills and lintels at the east window - The striped pattern created with alternating wood battens and shingles below the roofline - The large opening on the south façade - Landscape: - The mansion’s location on a height of land, providing a view overlooking Lake Ramsey - The layout of the buildings and the unobstructed visual relationship between the Belrock mansion and the secondary structure - The stone pillars and metal fencing along John Street Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.