By Jeff Helsdon
In a divided vote, Tillsonburg council approved a new plan for the town hall at 10 Lisgar Ave that will see the demolition of the existing building and a completely new build on the site. It will come with a price tag estimated as high as $18 million.
The route to get to this point has been a long one. During the last term of council, a town hall committee was formed to look at options. An option to build at the corner of Brock and Harvey Street was the preferred choice, but was turned down by council. This council then approved renovations of the existing Customer Service Centre/former PUC building at 10 Lisgar Ave. last fall. The approved structure would be two stories, with the additional story added where the existing service bays are. Estimated cost for this was $16.8 million.
Director of Operation and Development Jonathon Graham came back to council with a report at the July 8 meeting that identified problems with the plan approved last fall. Since that time through the design process, it was identified the customer service foyer needed to be larger to meet accessibility requirements, that the soil under the proposed addition wasn’t of the quality to support a two-story building and would have to be replaced and the expansion would put the building over the sanitary sewer. The enlarged foyer would add 1,300 square-feet to the plan for a total size of 26,293 square-feet.
He explained there may be a way to build over top of the sewer, but he would have to justify this to Oxford County – which owns the sewer – and there would have to be a plan for replacement.
Graham presented council with an order of magnitude, or preliminary cost estimate, of $20 million. He explained to council this number was preliminary and is based on square footage, not the detailed design. He added that the architects would look for savings throughout the process to cut the price, which could potentially cut 25 per cent. The increase in cost was pegged on the larger size, recently-found complications and the construction market becoming more expensive.
Another option was presented to council to demolish the current building at 10 Lisgar and build on that site. This would bring the price down to $18.9 million, and would include a basement in the building, would minimize conflicts with the sanitary sewer and would be 23,351 square-feet. It would have additional design costs and mean some of the design costs for work already done would be lost.
Deputy Mayor Dave Beres said he had concerns with the cost and questioned if it was necessary to have a basement. Graham answered that when excavating that much, it makes sense.
“It’s future proofing. It’s a rough shell and won’ be furnished,” he added.
Coun. Chris Parker questioned how Zorra Township’s new town hall is only 4,000 square-feet less, but cost $6.5 million.
“Why is there such a price discrepancy,” he asked. “It just doesn’t sit well with me that there are other buildings being built much cheaper.”
Graham and Dennis Vass of VG+ Architects both put the blame on price increases since COVID. It was suggested the market needed to be looked at as a whole, not just one building.
Further questioning from Parker to Assistant Treasurer Cheyne Sarafinchin revealed the cost amortized over 40 years would be $1.4 million per year, or a seven per cent increase to the budget.
“Those are big numbers,” Mayor Deb Gilvesy chipped in.
When Coun. Chris Rosehart asked for assurance that the building would be workable and appropriate for Tillsonburg, Graham said additional value will be sought through the design process and assured “it will not be a Taj Mahal.”
Development Commissioner Cephas Panschow told council that staff will be looking for offsetting revenue to minimize the hit on the tax payer. Preliminary estimates are this could be as much as $9 million.
“It’s a great point that there’s revenue to go with it, but a $20 million starting point in my mind is ludicrous,” Gilvesy said, adding she hyperventilated when she read the report.
The mayor said she was recently in a meeting with a corporation building a 50,000 square-foot building, which is twice the size of the proposed town hall, for $25 million.
“I’m not happy about this, I can’t put this on the tax payers back,” she said. “Someone needs to explain to me how something can cost $800 a square-foot. I get it’s a big estimate but It’s unrealistic. I know construction costs; I have reached out to developers. We were in a meeting today, which was residential, with a developer, and he said $400 to $450 to build basic apartment units and he was trying to do affordable (housing) for $275. If you can do residential housing for $400 to $450, I’m not going to support paying $800 a square foot for this building.”
Coun. Pete Luciani, agreed the costs were high, but said they will only get higher. He was a member of the former town hall steering committee, which operated between 2015 and 2022, that recommended a new building at the corner of Brock and Harveys Streets at a cost of $9 million.
“It astounds me we have taken this route and where we are at right now, we can’t stop the process now,” he said. “We moved from where we were in the mall, which was a decision this council made and I support. We have to do it right to move forward.”
He doesn’t believe deferring the project would allow catching up to escalating costs.
“We’re going to have to bite the bullet at some point,” he said.
A question from Gilvesy revealed that the town spent $420,000 on renovations at 10 Lisgar in 2022.
““We’re essentially going to throw out 400-and-some-thousand dollars we spent two years ago,” she said.
Coun. Kelly Spencer was against delaying a decision.
“This is a lot, and it feels like it was too much, but if there was a town hall committee, which I think some council members were on, and we pushed back against $9 million a few years ago, where are we going to be if don’t make a decision,” she asked, pointing out actual costs could be 25 per cent lower. “If we keep pushing this off, how much higher is this going to go with each year we put this off, and we have staff scattered all over town. It just feels like being caught between a rock and a hard place.”
Gilvesy raised the concept of building from the ground up on another site, but Luciani said one of the things the town hall committee decided before is visibility is important. Gilvesy countered that new information – about the sewer and soil – make 10 Lisgar less conducive. She asked about the risks with the proposal, reiterating that she was initially in favour of a one-story building, and suggested the existing soil would be sufficient if the building hadn’t been two stories.
“I wouldn’t peg it all on just two stories,” Graham said. “There is the sanitary sewer as well. There is the fact we are growing. Ten years ago, when you guys started down this path, we didn’t have the same staff compliment, we didn’t have the same development that we have. Things have changed as far as the landscape. It is a component of why costs have escalated , but isn’t it all of it.”
In a recorded vote, with Parker, Rosehart and Gilvesy voting against it, a motion was passed to go with the option to tear down the existing building at 10 Lisgar to build from the ground up and initialize the design process. Beres, Spencer, P
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