Despite vocal protests from Chatham-Kent residents, council voted 11-5 to go ahead and purchase the former Sears store in the Downtown Chatham Centre.
The municipality will buy the property from 100 King Street CK Holdings Inc, for $2.95 million. Money for the purchase of the building will come from municipal reserves.
Chatham-Kent now plans on renovating the space and moving its civic centre (city hall), library and museum into part of the mall that once housed a Sears department store.
Rob Myers, one of the co-owners of 100 King Street CK Holdings Inc., said the public discourse about the deal hurt his feelings.
Myers said he was trying to do a good thing for his hometown and had pledged any money he made on the deal, he will give it away.
“I believe it’s a solid deal for the city. It’s a long-term plan,” Myers said.
He said Chatham-Kent can continue to investigate the expenses as they move along, as well as build a new city hall, museum and library.
Councillor Steve Pinsonneault, said the $2.95 million purchase price is a lot of money for a building that the municipality hasn’t done their due diligence on.
Pinsonneault said he heard from many irate constituents who questioned spending money for a new city hall, library and museum.
“To me, it looks like we’re putting out a blank cheque about something we know nothing about,” Pinsonneault said. “I think this will haunt us in the future.”
The purchase comes with a buy-back provision letting the municipality trigger a repurchase of the property by the seller at the same price within 18 to 24 months, should the municipality decide to not proceed with redevelopment. It gives Chatham-Kent a way out of the project if the estimated costs for the redevelopment get too expensive.
“We have some surety that if things go in a direction that we can’t tolerate there is minimal municipal risk,” said councillor Brock McGregor.
Wallaceburg councillor Aaron Hall said the decision made by council on Monday night is not a point of no return, referencing the buy-back option.
Many residents and some councillors had issues with the costs of the redevelopment. A report said it will cost $6 million more to move the civic centre, library and museum to the former library, rather than making needed repairs to the current Civic Centre.
Chatham councillor Brock McGregor said the long-standing project will help to upgrade the library and museum, as well as upgrade city hall. He said it’s the most financially responsible route to take and to fix some wrongs by making things more accessible for residents.
“There is a cost of saying no,” McGregor said, noting previous councils decided not to renovate the current Civic Centre and let it go and that’s why they are in the situation they are currently in.
“We said no…, we said it because we thought we were saving taxpayers money, we’ve kicked that can down the road and we’ve not saved any money,” McGregor said, noting it’s the most financially responsible decision council can make.
“We know we need more information, we’re going to get it and we’re going to do it responsibly.”
The project will come back to council for many decisions in the future, including approving the costs for design and approval to move forward, as well as approving a tender prior to construction.
