City councillors have approved the demolition of the old BMO building in downtown Edmonton that has been sitting vacant for years.
The building, which has sat in the downtown since 1963, has been vacant for more than a dozen years. It has seen multiple owners and developers say it's beyond repair.
Local historians say the building does have some unique features.
"Looking at it of course the colour is one of the things you notice right away... the green colour, which is the Bank of Montreal's corporation colour is glazed, the bricks themselves are green though," said Tim Marriot.
There have been some people who tried to rally around the bank, including a Facebook group called "Save BMO 63". The group launched earlier this summer and has attracted under 200 likes at this point.
But protecting the city's heritage is a view shared by one city councillor.
"I think it's a tremendous shame though. It's a fascinating building and at first you may not appreciate it but when you start to learn more about it and appreciate it... I wish we could have learned more about to it make it possible to save the building," said Coun. Don Iveson.
But despite the building's solid look, developers say the structure isn't sound and repairing it would not be worth the cost involved, which led the city to make the decision to demolish it.
Once the bank is demolished, it will be replaced with a parkade with a two storey structure above complete with retail space.
With files from Simon Ostler
