A significant aspect of the Imagine Chatham-Kent proposal still includes the future of the Chatham-Kent Civic Center and the potential to relocate municipal operations to the building.
Chatham-Kent council will receive an update on a revised proposal — which no longer includes an entertainment complex — for the Downtown Chatham Center project on Monday night.
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However, a significant aspect of the Imagine Chatham-Kent proposal still includes the future of the Chatham-Kent Civic Center and the potential to relocate municipal operations to the building.
According to an administrative report, the new proposal is similar to what was outlined in the original plan for Phase 1, but that Phase 2, the entertainment complex, will not go ahead, because the local investor group intends on maintaining and refurbishing the remainder of the mall.
The revised terms of the proposal, which is not up for approval Monday, but rather a recommendation for further consultation, include the following:
- The former Sears portion of the mall property, the existing 580-space parking garage and a portion of the surface parking immediately east of the garage, which contains approximately 60 spaces, would be transferred as-is to the municipality. The municipality could still relocate part of its service operations, but it would be refurbished for these purposes by the municipality directly.
- Slightly less land would also be transferred to the municipality than in the original design where an outdoor promenade area was featured. This is because the new plan for the investor group is to maintain the remainder of the mall.
- The municipality would still obtain the parking garage structure as in the original proposal, but the parking garage would also be transferred as-is without any prior repairs being done by the investor group.
- The municipality will pay for the out-of-pocket costs for the design drawings to date.
- No obligation for the investor group to redevelop the other portions of the mall, including no redevelopment for an entertainment complex.
- No guaranteed bid for the three existing municipal buildings expected to be made redundant with the redevelopment of the DCC portions of property (civic centre, Chatham library branch, and CK Museum/Thames Art Gallery).
- If the municipality does not redevelop the property for service operations, Chatham-Kent must offer it back to the investor group for the purchase price and any hard costs incurred by the municipality, such as infrastructure repair. If the group does not wish to repurchase the property, the municipality can redevelop it for other purposes or sell it.
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In the spring of 2021, the downtown mall’s ownership group — Rob Myers, Pete and Jessica Tsirimbis, Ron Nydam, Don Tetrault and Jim Bullock — announced the redevelopment plan.
Last summer, council approved recommendations to proceed with investigating the feasibility of purchasing part of the property. Administration also continued to negotiate with the investor group.
An initial indication of value produced by Robson Associates Inc. for the lands, building and parking garage provided an appraised value of $3.5 million.
A formal appraisal is being produced by the same firm, and indications are that it will be approximately this same value, the report stated.
“The investor group has indicated that with an appraisal price of $3.5 million, they do not see the feasibility for the creation of the entertainment complex,” it stated. “The entertainment complex was a significant aspect of the Imagine Chatham-Kent proposal, which garnered some public interest; however, this element of the Imagine Chatham-Kent proposal will not be proceeding.”
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The group is currently seeking long-term leases for the mall tenants in an attempt to revitalize the facility.
“The investor group has recently secured some longer leases, so it seems unlikely that a redevelopment of the mall for other purposes is imminent, as the investor group has advised they want the DCC to be a top-tier mall,” the report said.
The investors’ updated proposal is conditional until Nov. 3 of this year, with the group asking for municipal approval to complete a purchase of the property before that date.
“However, this does not bind council to actually proceed with a full redevelopment of property as the necessary analysis, approvals and decisions needed to relocate municipal operations to the former Sears building have not yet been completed,” the report stated.
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“Should council decide to move forward with the purchase in the future, the municipality would have full control to retain the necessary experts for design and refurbishment of the former Sears building and will follow its purchasing processes for the design/build process.”
The following options were outlined for the future of the civic centre:
Option 1 – Do nothing/address requirements on an as-needed basis;
Option 2 – Renovate the existing civic center ($30 million to $35 million);
Option 3 – Renovate the existing civic centre/library expansion/cultural center ($38.7 million to $45.8 million);
Option 4 – Build a new civic center at a new location ($70 million to $80 million);
Option 5 – Purchase a portion of Downtown Chatham Center and relocate ($42,387,400).
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A detailed financing plan would be required for options 2, 3, 4 and 5, which would all include a combination of use of existing reserves, a long-term debenture and benefit of energy efficiencies as a result of new system upgrades, the report stated .
Given feedback from the initial round of consultations, and the latest project information, an updated Let’s Talk page will be available Aug. 15, which will allow the public to participate in a new survey, which will remain open until Sept. 22.
There will be two public consultation sessions. One will be with the specific stakeholder groups (Chatham-Kent Public Library and Chatham-Kent Arts and Culture Network) and the other with the general public.
These sessions are being scheduled during the weeks of Sept. 11 and 18, with further details to come.
A report will be prepared for the Oct. 30 council meeting.
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