Sudbury’s Ledo sign sells for more than $900

The old Ledo Hotel sign has a new owner after the City of Greater Sudbury put the iconic landmark up for auction at GovDeals.ca.

Sudbury's iconic Ledo Hotel's sign was sold at auction this week. (Supplied/GovDeals.ca)Bidding ended at 11 a.m. on Friday but the winning bid of $925 was made a couple of hours earlier just after 9 a.m.

The sign's new owner started bidding minutes before at 9:00 a.m. when the price was at $800 and placed the final winning bid at 9:04 a.m. on Jan. 19 after some back and forth.

The winner's initial bid of $825 was counter by another user who made a total of five bids before giving up the auction after the new owner’s third bid for the sign.

The auction saw a total of 45 bids for the sign with more than 1,600 users visiting the auction page before bidding closed.

The Ledo Hotel building was demolished earlier this month after the city purchased the property as part of a larger land redevelopment plan for the downtown core that is expected to include a new or remodeled arena and event centre.

The long empty Ledo Hotel property was purchased for $900,000 as part of a $2 million purchase of the entire unique triangular block on which it stood in June.

Greater Sudbury purchased the former Ledo Hotel on Elgin Street with a plan to demolish it for future redevelopment. (File photo/CTV News Northern Ontario)Shortly after spending millions more on other properties in the area including Alexandria's, the Dog House Sports Bar and Eatery, Old Rock Coffee and Golden Grain Bakery. The city will also be expropriating the Wacky Wings property on Shaughnessy Street.

The cost to date is about $12 million total – excluding the Wacky Wings property – and is being funded through the previously borrowed event centre capital funds.

"On Dec. 5, city council passed bylaw 2023-194 which authorized an application for approval to expropriate the land at 187 Shaughnessy St. to facilitate the south district event centre development opportunity project," city spokesperson April Low told CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca in a previous email.

"The expropriation process is currently underway and it will take a number of months before the city becomes the owner of the property. The process of expropriation in Ontario is governed by the Expropriations Act."

No word on the estimated compensation cost for the owners of Wacky Wings Sudbury.

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Sudbury-based Lacroix Construction Co. was the lowest bidder at $224,195 and awarded the tender to demolish the Ledo Hotel building and the rest of the block.

Demolition began Jan. 8/24 on the former Ledo Hotel in Sudbury's downtown core as part of the city's plans redevelop the area. (File photo/Alana Everson/CTV News Northern Ontario)

Barry Lacroix of Lacroix Construction told CTV News on the phone last month that his company was removing asbestos from the 70-year-old three-story triangular-shaped brick building before the demolition and the other buildings on the block will be taken down after the Ledo.

One of the city’s expectations was for the contractor to salvage the iconic sign, which has now been auctioned for a total of $1,107.96 including fees and taxes.

Sudbury's Ledo Hotel's iconic sign has been auctioned off by the city for a total of $1,107.96 including fees and taxes. (Supplied/GovDeals.ca)

– With files from CTV Northern Ontario videojournalists Alana Everson and Amanda Hicks and CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca digital content producers Darren MacDonald and Chelsea Papineau