Council nixes call for more third-party oversight of mall move plan

With staff calling it redundant, Chatham-Kent council nixed a call for third-party oversight of a proposal to move the civic center, library and museum to part of the Downtown Chatham Centre.

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There are more reports to come as the process unfolds, municipal administrators assured council Monday night.

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In January, council voted to proceed with a $2.95-million deal to buy the former Sears portion of the mall property from 100 King Street CK Holdings Inc.

This included a buy-back provision letting the municipality trigger repurchase of the property by the seller at the same price should Chatham-Kent not proceed with redevelopment.

Given public interest and concern about the project, Chatham Coun. Alysson Storey entered a motion Monday to:

• Hire a consultant to independently verify construction and all relevant project costs.
• Have staff report to council monthly with financial accounting, project updates and meeting minutes of the staff project team and stakeholder engagement group.
• Present all municipal funding sources required to pay for proposed options for the old Sears building to council before any vote on next steps.

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But council only voted in favor of the call to present municipal funding sources.

Chatham Coun. Brock McGregor appreciated the “spirit” of the motion, but asked if the consultant would duplicate the work of the existing managing consultant, Nustadia.

It would, replied Edward Soldo, the municipality’s infrastructure and engineering general manager.

“Nustadia also plays a role from a financial perspective,” he said. “They’ll be taking a review of those cost assessments that are provided and looking at it from a business case perspective.”

McGregor said he was satisfied by the answer, stressing the oversight is already third-party and not internal.

“If we’re duplicating work that’s already happening, it might not be best practice to go ahead with that,” he said.

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But Storey, a critic of the Downtown Chatham Center proposal, said the project’s large scale required more scrutiny.

After the meeting, she said she was disappointed there wasn’t more support for her full motion.

“Based on the feedback we have been receiving from residents, there is a lot of confusion around what this project could cost and how we’re going to pay for it,” Storey said.

“Based on my discussions with professionals in the building, renovation and construction sectors as I prepared my motion, having an independent third party to verify the numbers is a common best practice for projects of this scale.

“Their role isn’t to duplicate existing work being done, it’s to ensure all of the costs on a project have been analyzed and independently confirmed. With the costs of construction and building these days, it seems more important than ever to take this step.”

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In spring 2021, the downtown mall’s ownership group, including Rob Myers, Pete and Jessica Tsirimbis, Ron Nydam, Don Tetrault and Jim Bullock, announced plans to redevelop the property. Council approved investigating the feasibility of buying part of it the next summer.

Last October, councilors voted to consider the project further.

A report at that time estimated the total cost of buying, renovating and moving into the property at $53 million. This includes taxes less rebate, buying the land, architectural and engineering work, contract administration, a 15 per cent contingency, and 15 per cent to allow for inflation in material and labor costs.

Given Monday’s council discussion, there is “interest and support for transparency” when it comes to the costs, but different ideas on how to get there, Storey said.

“This is far from a done deal and there are several votes to come before. . . a final decision is made,” she said.

“That’s why it’s so important for folks to continue sharing their feedback with us. Until then, I’ll continue to do my best to ask good questions about the project and ensure the community is aware of what’s happening every step of the way.”

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