Building divestment a key element
Municipal officials and the lead architect behind the design of the proposed Chatham-Kent Community Hub sat down with local media recently to talk about apples.
Well, the requested apples-to-apples cost comparison between creating the Hub out of the former Sears building versus renovating the Civic Centre, Chatham branch of the C-K Library and C-K Museum.
They reiterated the Hub cost is slated at just shy of $53 million, with $43 million of that being construction costs. The remainder includes the price of the building’s purchase, consultant fees, hazardous substance removal, moving expenses, new furniture and equipment purchases, and audio visual equipment.
What’s more, they said renovating the existing buildings and bringing them up to today’s standards would not be fruitful. In fact, Dan Amicone of Architecttura, the Windsor firm hired by the municipality to design the Hub, said it would cost more than double the price of the Hub to do so.
“Because of programming, and to take them up to the current standards, and AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) standards and accessibility, we come to about $108 million comparatively,” he said. “We feel that with the current state of the buildings, we took a look at what it would take to bring it up to something equal to what the C-K Hub is providing.”
Municipal officials and the architects said opting to simply perform lifecycle replacements on the existing buildings equates to more than $47 million.
Gord Quinton, municipal chief financial officer, said selling the Civic Centre and the library would fetch an estimated $9 million, meaning the cost of the $53 million project would drop to $44 million, less than the cost of fixing up the Civic Centre and library, based on the figures released April 30.
“Why would we spend money fixing up two buildings when we could go to one and have the efficiencies of being in one building? The only financially recommended option is the C-K Hub,” he said.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said it is too good an opportunity to ignore.
“Here we have the opportunity to add value. This building will be good for the next 50 years,” he said.
So far, about $5 million has been spent, including the $2.95 million cost of the former Sears building, which, should council not opt to proceed with the project, would be covered through a buy-back from the 100 King developers who sold the property to the municipality in the first place.
Canniff stressed the construction costs will not top the anticipated $42.9 million.
“You’ve heard all sorts of numbers. But when we go to RFP (Request for Proposals), it’s going to be a fixed price. When they bid $42 (million), it will be that number,” he said.
The potential impact of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump are accounted for, Amicone said.
“Less than five per cent of the materials will be coming from the United States,” he said. “We took a proactive approach with our engineering and consulting team to make sure that things like mechanical equipment, light fixtures, flooring – all the different parts and materials that we can take advantage of – are coming from Canada as much as possible.”
The $42.9 million estimated cost of construction is a price point that has been reviewed by independent cost consultants, Amicone said. Lakeland Consulting handled the task.
Municipal staff and Amicone are confident the costs will drop further. Quinton said there are potential revenues for naming rights to various aspects of the Hub, for example.
Canniff said senior levels of government may make funding available.
“I know there is going to be some government funding coming out. We will certainly be applying for that. But we haven’t built it in,” Canniff said.
Quinton and Canniff stressed taxes will not be raised to pay for the project. The funding, including a planned $16.8 million loan, is covered, they said.
An estimated $6 million will come from lifecycle funding that has been stockpiling for several years, “since council directed us to stop fixing up this building,” Quinton said.
There is $9 million in new building reserves, he added.
“In 2015, we started building up funding that’s available to go towards new buildings or large renovations,” he said. “We knew our buildings won’t last forever.”
Development charges – growth paying for growth – will cover an estimated $1.75 million.
And with the Hub essentially being new, it’s not anticipated there will be any major lifecycle expenses for the first decade of its existence, adding another $10 million in funding over time for the project, Quinton said.
He added the project is “fully costed and financially sound.
“As CFO, I recommend it, because it can be afforded entirely within existing budgets with no tax increases. We have planned ahead with the replacement of aging assets. It started in 2015,” he said. “There is no tax increase because of this project and there will be no closure of other rural infrastructure because of this project.”
All the information is available for review on the LetsTalkChatham-Kent website.
Council will decide on the next steps, whether or not to proceed to the construction procurement phase, on May 12. That council meeting will take place at the Bradley Centre due to anticipated public interest. Deputations will be allowed.
Amicone said construction on the Hub could begin as early as December.
Sure sounds to me like this is already decided. Can’t tell me that you already spent 5 million and without going forward on this that money would be a total waste?? You know, and I bet I’m speaking for a lot of people here, that there are MUCH more important issues we have that the money would assist better with. Just because the buildings outdated a bit doesn’t mean we have to spend astronomical amount of money on!