A bid by Norlon Builders of London for the reconstruction of the former Robert Bateman School of $57.9 million has been approved by Burlington Council. The bid was $4 million less than the original estimate by staff which reduces the debt financing to $35.1 million. The carrying charges to the tax bill will be $3.4 million per year. Norlon is the same contractor who were awarded a $37 million contract last year for the Skyway Community Centre project.
The financing for the project includes $7.1 million in tenant contributions and $11.7 million in rent paid by the tenants; although it should be noted that two of the tenants—the Library and Tech Place are city entities.
Staff estimate it will cost $1.8 million per year to operate the facility—half of that coming from tenants which will also include the proposed Burlington Campus of Brock University. All of this will be subject to an operational study which will be conducted once the final design of the building is complete.
The public will get a chance to weigh in on uses for the unallocated portion of the building when an engagement plan is developed next month.
The Bateman acquisition and renovation project was developed largely out of the public eye from the time it was first presented to council in a closed-door meeting in December 2021. Public engagement during 2022 consisted largely of inviting public opinion on acquiring the property, but without giving the public any sense of the cost of the renovations. Only once the 2022 election was out of the way did the public get the full price tag.
The plan calls for more than $10 Million for works to reduce the site’s carbon footprint and accordingly, the city submitted an application to the Low Carbon Economy Challenge Fund in 2022. The application was unsuccessful and the City is not proceeding with the energy abatement work at this time. However, the building is being constructed to accommodate the energy conservation features in the future so they can be constructed while the building is occupied. Some items like the upgrade of roofing insulation will wait till the existing roof life cycle is reached. Other work, primarily the geothermal field, will be constructed with a future phase allowing time for the City to apply for any other funding programs that may be available for these carbon reduction strategies.
The project is expected to be complete by the end of June 2025.
The work is not going ahead on the low carbon initiatives that did not receive funding from senior levels of government.
The project may be under budget, but the timing of the occupancy by Brock University has slipped from 2024 to 2025.