City of Fredericton has plan to save York House

The Brunswick Street Baptist Church says it's intrigued by an offer by the city of Fredericton to buy York House.

The church has owned the 114-year-old building since the 1960s. Last week, the congregation voted to tear it down in order to expand its facilities.

On Monday night, Fredericton city council decided the city would make an offer to buy the historic building.

Mayor Brad Woodside said the deal would likely involve finding more space for the church, as well as buying York House.

Paul Green, a member of the church congregation, said he would be happy to see a solution that would save the building and give the church the space it needs.

Green said the church looked at a number of other expansion options before deciding to tear down York House.

"One of the properties, the owner simply wasn't interested in selling, and a couple of others, we could buy them, but the price would be higher than what we could sell York House for, and also it would only give us about half of the land York House would," Green said. "We looked at those options, we weren't successful. I don't know if the city's looking at the same option or not, I just don't know."