This article was amended on Jan. 4, 2023, with updated information on square footage rates.
Bradford’s new community and social services hub at 177 Church St. may have missed a few targets for opening, but work is now in the final stages.
While the Helping Hand Food Bank and WOW Living both moved into the new facility just before the holidays, they’re currently operating out of the community space while they work to set up their individual wings of the building.
In addition to providing space for social services, once completed, the 30,000-sq.-ft. facility will also feature a reception area, commercial kitchen, meeting rooms, and a large multi-purpose room which can be rented or used for town programs.
Terry Foran, director of community services, had hoped to have the hub fully open before winter.
“I would love to be programming the entire building for spring,” he said. “I just can’t put that information into our program guide until I have certainty on what our tenants are up to.”
Those tenants couldn’t begin work on their spaces until recently, because various issues over the years caused delays to renovations of the old Bradford Public School.
“It’s been difficult, as with anything with a renovated building. Renovation projects are always more difficult. There’s more uncertainties in navigating through them,” Foran said.
The town purchased the three-acre property from the Simcoe County District School Board for $5.1 million in October 2020, and by early February 2021 had initial plans in place to create a hub for local non-profit organizations.
At the time, staff had hoped the building could be renovated for about $4.2 million, but an engineering report later revealed the roof and windows would need to be replaced, and in June of 2021 council approved expanding the budget by about $1.8 million, with an expected opening sometime in September 2022.
Staff were also in the process of applying for the federal Green and Inclusive Community Building (GICB) program grant, which had the potential to cover 80 per cent of the project costs.
By the time the winning tender from Domm Construction was selected in March 2022, the cost had increased again to more than $8.5 million, plus the $421,238 in engineer costs from Pinpoint Engineering who undertook the structural review.
At the same time, council approved a contingency fund of 20 per cent, which meant a total budget of about $10.5 million for the project.
On the up side, having the tender selected also made it easier for staff to proceed with the grant.
“Once we had our detailed design and we understood what our energy savings was going to be, we could put an accurate grant application together,” Foran said, adding that by August 2022, the town received the notification letter for the grant of $5.3 million.
By June 2022 work was well underway, with a new opening date set for spring 2023. But the project hit yet another roadblock when crews discovered structural deficiencies, requiring the town to demolish and rebuild about one third of the facility, including the gymnasium, some classrooms and a portion of the west-facing side of the building, according to Foran, who said the town was also dealing with delays in delivery of the steel needed for construction.
“That was the greatest delay that we had, and it probably held us to four or five months on our delivery. It was a big hit,” he said, noting the additional cost for that work came in at about $700,000.
Fortunately, the contingency fund meant Foran could continue working with crews to keep the project moving.
By June 2023, the first set of tenants — the Helping Hand Food Bank, WOW Living and CrossTrainers Canada — had signed leases for space in the new hub and the town again revised its target to open in October 2023, but then some of the finishing materials were delayed due to more supplier issues.
“I would love to have seen this one condensed to tighter timelines, but with the difficulties that we ran into, I think we we’ve done incredibly well in holding the timelines that we have,” Foran said. “Again, renovations can be difficult, especially when you’re talking about a facility that has been added onto dating back to the early 1950s, through to the 2000s when the last addition went onto it. These types of buildings can be a struggle, but in doing what we’ve done, we have a renewed facility that’s going to serve a good purpose.”
Foran estimated the total cost of renovating the facility is about $10.2 million, a little more than half of which is covered by the grant.
While Foran expects to host a grand opening at the site sometime in the future, the date cannot be determined until the initial tenants have had time to finish work on their spaces.
For the food bank that includes a shopping area designed to resemble a typical grocery-store layout with coolers and freezers around the outside and non-perishables in the middle, and an exit near the checkout desk.
There will also be a washroom available to clients, a board room and staff area with a kitchenette, a warehouse with double doors for easy loading plus a walk-in freezer.
While it is unknown exactly how long it could take to have all of that ready, Donna Lutchman, a member of the food bank board of directors, estimated it might not be until March.
In the meantime, Foran shared that two other community-oriented organizations have expressed interest in leasing space, but couldn’t disclose their identities as contracts had yet to be negotiated.
The three initial tenants who signed leases in June were provided a “legacy tenant” rate of $11 per square foot per year, according to information shared during the food bank’s annual general meeting in June 2023.
At the time, both Brian Febel, chair of the board of directors, and Carolyn Khan, executive director, expressed how pleased they were with the rate.
“I’m happy to share that we’ve secured a lease with the town of Bradford that is a win for the community and is a win for everybody sitting in this room,” Febel said.
At the time, BradfordToday agreed not to publish the rate as contracts had yet to be signed, but Foran confirmed all legacy tenants were provided the same rate, which is considerably less than rates of $20 to $23 per square foot seen in comparator municipalities, according to a presentation about the hub from chief administrative officer Geoff McKnight in February 2021.
Those three tenants had previously leased space from the town’s building at 31 Frederick St., which the town donated to Leap of Faith Together (LOFT) Community Services in late 2021, providing LOFT the opportunity to move out of the aging building at 136 Barrie St. and create a new version of its Bradford House campus, with a five- or six-storey development that will include as many as 100 self-contained units, adding capacity for 54 more residents than the current facility.
That campus is also set to include the building at 123 Moore St. — which became home to the food bank after it was incorporated in 1991 — and council voted to allow the demolition and redevelopment of both buildings, during its regular meeting Sept. 5.
— With files from Natasha Philpott and Patrick Bales
