Airdrie could be featured on Canadian TV show Salvage Kings this fall – granted the show’s crew can locate enough local venues to hunt for historic and unique treasures.
The documentary-style TV show on the History Channel, which is produced out of Ontario, looks for old buildings in various states of disrepair to send their salvage crew. The crew, led by main character Ted Finch, then works to recover items worth saving, which they fix, clean up, and sell to the perfect buyer, before the property is demolished.
According to a source within the production, who asked not to be named, Salvage Kings have revived everything from small items worth $10 to larger accent pieces worth up to $10,000 or more.
For every property and item they salvage, the crew provides payment to the property owner. The show then takes ownership of those items and removes them from the premises.
If there are specific items the property owner does not want to part with, the production team just needs to know what is off-limits.
At the moment, the production team hasn’t sourced any viable properties in or around Airdrie and is working hard to find those properties in order to go ahead with filming.
If a local property can be found, Airdrie would be the first area to be featured on the show outside of Salvage Kings’ home province of Ontario.
Not limiting their scope to Airdrie, the source within the production said they are looking for anything within a two-hour drive of the city. Currently, they are in touch with several different municipalities in Alberta but haven’t locked anything in as of press time.
“We're looking for at least three killer properties with lots of salvage to pick through,” they said, adding these three properties would be featured within one episode of the next season.
The production team contacts hundreds of property owners each season, even though they only feature roughly 25 properties on the show, according to production.
“Even just older buildings that used to be operational businesses but closed down and still have inventory left behind, old factories that used to run but are no longer in use,” the City View’s source said. “Demolition isn't in the forefront of what we're looking for – salvaging is the name of the game.”
Aside from filming the salvaging work at various properties, the crew would be shooting some local images and landmarks around Airdrie as well.
In previous episodes, the team salvaged oil and gas collectibles, antiques, vintage toys, vintage tools, metal signs, or unique architectural salvage. Whatever is found needs to fit into a single trailer and will be driven back to Ontario once they wrap up filming in Alberta.
The source described their team as a small documentary-style crew with no more than eight people. Unlike a big Hollywood production, most residents in Airdrie would likely not notice the film crew running around the city, they added.
The show is a fast-and-furious production, with all filming to be completed in approximately five days or less, according to a press release.
Production hopes to shoot their material in Airdrie this August as long as they secure the right properties. An Airdrie-based episode would be featured sometime this fall for Salvage Kings’ upcoming season.
Airdronians who know the perfect abandoned property full of treasures and worthy of being featured on Salvage Kings, are encouraged to email [email protected]
