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ON PAGE 34
An underdog Tamanawis Wildcats squad als, 24 falls to red-hot Kelowna at provincials,
Business
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FLAMINGO BLOCK: Big plans afoot for storied hotel as developer wants to turn area into Surrey’s ‘new Yaletown’ Tom Zytaruk
Now staff Twitter @tomzytaruk
I
f you were to randomly pluck a dozen men off the street in Surrey, you’d likely find at least one in the group who at some point in time had downed a pint or two of Rickard’s Red while watching strippers dance at the Byrd. “A lot of people know the Byrd Pub,” says Mark Aylott, general manager of Whalley’s storied Flamingo Hotel since 2009. “Almost every guy over 30 I speak to, and tell them what I do, says, ‘Oh, I’ve been there, I’ve been with my dad.’ It’s kind of like a rite of passage for going in with their first beer with their dad, at the Byrd. Pretty much everybody I’ve spoken to.” Indeed the hotel, with its loud, pink “Live Nude Girls” sign on its side, is one of the Lower Mainland’s last “peeler bars” in operation. The exotic dancer show pub, with its stage and brass poles, was set up in the 1970s but the hotel itself had a
much more wholesome beginning 60 years ago. The Flamingo officially opened in July 1955 as a motor hotel with more than 1,000 people attending the ceremony. It had 20 rooms, cost $275,000 to build, and featured a drive-through leading to ample parking out back. “It was at the time quite a desirable place,” Aylott says. “People would come over here for Sunday dinners, so forth.” Weddings were held there. There was also a cabaret, lounge, full dining room, and a coffee shop where the beer and wine store is today. FOR MORE OLD PHOTOS SEE THENOWNEWSPAPER.COM Along the way, the hotel, pub and Tropic Lounge have collected their ghosts. In 1985, the Byrd gained international notoriety after staging a dwarf-tossing contest, and last year, a 31-year-old man was stabbed in the pub on Nov. 22. It was also the last place at
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Mark Aylott, general manager of Whalley’s storied Flamingo Hotel (left) and Surrey land developer Charan Sethi, of the Tien Sher Group, sit inside the hotel’s lounge. (Photo: TOM ZYTARUK) least two people were seen before they were murdered. The body of Norma Jane Cowley, 31, was found on the front lawn of a home on 108th Avenue on April 12, 1997, a few hours after she’d left the lounge. Four years earlier, Vancouver drug dealer Roy Eldon Alle, 29, was found in a Whalley ditch with a bullet in his head and a yellow roped tied around his neck. Police found his jeep parked at the hotel. The Flamingo itself will pass into history as development takes hold. “We continue to operate this as an old-school, blue collar stripper bar,” says Aylott, standing next to the stripper stage. “(It is) one of the very few that’s left in Vancouver, and we’ll continue to do so until the natural progression of demolition.”
Indeed, big plans are afoot for the dingy watering hole and hotel. Surrey land developer Charan Sethi, of the Tien Sher Group, is keen to unveil a future vision for the site. If things go his way, the Flamingo won’t see its 70th birthday. The developer’s literally monumental connection with the neighbourhood began in 2005 when he bought a large parcel of land east of the hotel on the other side of Whalley Boulevard, where his Quattro and Balance condominium developments are today. Driving in from Richmond to visit his daughter in Fraser Heights, he spotted a “for sale” sign, bought the land and a dream was born.
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A band plays during the opening of the Flamingo’s Rusty Nail in September 1965. Do you know who the band is? Email us at edit@thenownewspaper.com. (Photo: SURREY ARCHIVES)
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