Damage cost estimates are still being tallied, but First Capital Realty will have to foot the bill for a flood that closed Front Street for three hours after a water main broke Wednesday.
Water gushed onto Front Street shortly after noon when a drill crew accidentally bored into a water main in the Port Place Shopping Centre parking lot.
The shattered pipe released about 660,000 litres of water over 20 minutes before city crews could shut off the flow.
"At this point I don't have a cost, but it will be the responsibility of the developer," said John Elliot, city manager of utilities.
The water main belongs to First Capital Realty and was installed as part of the shopping centre's ongoing renovation work.
Elliot credited city utility crews for their speedy response and quick work to track down the layout of the Port Place water system to shut of the flow.
"We got the call 10 minutes in and we had it shut down within 10 minutes after arriving," Elliot said. "Because it's a private system, it's pretty amazing that they got it shut down that quickly."
Water flooded Front Street between Promenade Drive and Museum Way and undermined sections of the Port Place Shopping Centre parking lot, as well as the sidewalk on the south side of Front Street, as it cascaded into the downtown Boat Basin.
Water dissipated through the storm drain system once the main was shut off, leaving city crews to clean up a thick layer of mud from Front Street before it could be reopened to traffic.
The damaged section of sidewalk will remain closed until it is repaired.
"It will be a discussion between the city and the developer," Elliot said. "They have contractors working on the site so they'll be responsible to replace the sidewalk."
Drill crews have worked at Port Place Shopping Centre since last summer as part of First Capital Realty's efforts to deal with dry cleaning fluid contamination discovered in the soil.
Crews drill into the soil and inject a hydrogen peroxide solution into the bore holes to neutralize the soil contamination.
Ralph Huizinga, First Capital Realty vice-president of acquisitions and development, confirmed Thursday the drill crew hit the water main, but said he did not yet have an estimate for damage costs and the company was still investigating why the accident occurred.
"There were third-party locators on the site prior to drilling to identify and mark the location of all pipes in the area, so we're puzzled how it happened," Huizinga said. "We're still not clear who's at fault for this, but clearly someone is."
Greg Norman, Nanaimo Fire Rescue assistant chief of operations, said the only businesses affected by the water main break was Thrifty Foods, which lost water feed to its fire suppression system.
No one was injured.