The latest cost estimate for the Sunshine Coast Regional District's new headquarters on Field Road is $3.6 million. The SCRD is considering design changes which could trim the cost to $3 million, but either way property owners are facing a tax hike of between six and seven dollars per $100,000 of assessed value. Taxes increase, on average, 3.5 to four per cent.
The SCRD board, which had been aiming to keep the construction budget under $2 million, heard the bad news from its newly-hired project manager, John Hiebert, during a special board meeting July 22. Hiebert said the SCRD is feeling the pain of a double-digit escalation of construction costs.
"This is not a good time to be building buildings," said Hiebert, who plans to break ground in September and complete the building in the spring of 2005.
Hiebert suggested several possible budget cuts: replacing the geothermal heating with an air exchange system ($250,000), minimizing the electrical upgrades ($150,000), keeping the asphalt roof rather than buying a metal roof ($200,000), using steel rather than wood for doors and window frames ($50,000) and using an open-plan design rather than separate offices with walls ($285,000).
SCRD directors are considering those options, though some were unenthusiastic. John Marian, the Halfmoon Bay director, said the geothermal heating and electrical renovations could repay their higher costs over time. Gibsons mayor Barry Janyk disliked the idea of a "cube farm" replacing offices.
"If we respect our employees, we should recognize they are human beings, not prairie dogs," said Janyk.
The SCRD, seeking a larger office space for its 56 staff, bought an empty building at the top of Field Road for just over $1 million in 2003. The building formerly had been leased by the Ministry of Forests. The SCRD board has repeatedly scaled back the design for the Field Road renovation as successive estimates came in with higher budgets and later completion dates. The first budget for renovation, in May 2003, was $430,000.
In the fall of 2003 the SCRD chose an architect, Iredale Group Architecture, which proposed a $1.6 million budget for an environmentally friendly building with an interior courtyard providing windows into almost every office and a pond collecting run-off to flush the toilets and water the shrubs. That budget grew to $1.8 million by Christmas, then to $2.4 million in March.
Alarmed, the SCRD board passed a resolution capping the budget at $2 million and set about looking for ways to cut costs. The latest design is 1,800 square feet smaller than the first draft, with no courtyard or irrigation pond, slightly smaller offices, a much smaller lobby and one less meeting room. But still the budget grew to $3.6 million.
According to Hiebert, the renovated 19,000 square foot building still will cost less than a new building of the same size, which he estimated at $5 million minimum.
The SCRD has about $1.2 million available in cash to pay for the Field Road construction, including $171,00 in a reserve fund and $250,000 from the B.C. government in compensation for the MOF lease on the building. The rest of the cash is the proceeds from the sale of the SCRD's two present office buildings.
On June 8, the SCRD sold its main offices in the waterfront Royal Terraces building to Profco Holdings for $495,000. Less costs, the government netted $476,944 on that sale. The nearby Green Gables building facing Wharf Avenue was sold to Coast Reporter last year for $338,000, with a net of $322,155.
The SCRD is now paying rent to the new owners while waiting for the Field Road office. The rent for the Royal Terraces is $4,500 a month.
