Cost to convert Pelissier retail space soars

The cost of a hotly disputed plan to convert retail space in the Pelissier Street parking garage has skyrocketed past city estimates to as much as $1.1 million.

The city recently received tenders on the plan, which involves the already implemented eviction of retail tenants to create 43 more parking spots. The lowest bid was $888,000. When councillors voted 7-4 in favour of the plan last November, administration told them it would cost $507,000.

“It opens everything up,” said Ward 3 Coun. Rino Bortolin, who voted against the plan.

“I would have a hard time believing anybody around that table — any one of the 11 councillors and mayor — would continue on with this exact path. I think reconsideration of anything that we’ve dealt with so far is on the table.”

The $888,000 bid came from Elmara Construction Co. Limited.

TCI Titan Group put in a proposal that would cost $1,035,000.

Pupatello & Sons Ltd. bid $1,114,750.

Vince Ferro Construction came in the highest at $1,120,604.

Administration told council the conversion would cost $507,000, compared to $490,000 to fix the deteriorating commercial units.

Mayor Drew Dilkens said Sunday the tenders are nothing to get excited about.

“To start ringing the alarm bells at this point, I think it’s way to premature for anyone to do that, a city councillor or otherwise,” he said.

“The folks who are trying to make this look like it’s a horrible thing have not let the process play out. This is normal course of business where there’s an estimate and a tender comes in. Sometimes it’s under, sometimes it’s over.”

He said staff will sit down with the lowest bidder to see if costs can be reduced.

It’s possible the bids include decorative aspects the staff estimate didn’t include, said Dilkens.

“The last thing we want to do is just knock out the walls of the commercial units and say ‘OK great, we’ve got 50 additional parking spaces,’ ” said Dilkens. “We want it to look nice. So it’s important to make sure we understand what was included in that tender.”

Despite that, Bortolin said moving ahead with the project at those prices would be “a horrible fiscal decision.”

“We were on the wrong side from an urban planning perspective,” said Bortolin. “I think now we’re on the wrong side of it financially and from a fiscal perspective. We talk about respect for the taxpayers and looking out for the taxpayers. This is basically $21,000 or $22,000 per parking spot we’d be looking to create in an area where we have no data that shows we need any new parking.”

Ward 9 Coun. Hilary Payne, who initially supported the plan, wouldn’t say Sunday night if the high-priced tenders have changed his mind.

“I want to see the administrative report,” said Payne.

“It’s not my practice to come to conclusions way ahead of time without having all the information. I need all the information. I also want to hear what my fellow councillors are saying too.”

He said his decision on whether to accept one of the bids will hinge on how much extra revenue the added parking spots will generate.

“It has to be set against the revenue coming from those units that are about to become parking spots,” said Payne.

“There’s got to be some connection there. What is the cost benefit of it and so on and so forth?”

But even now, said Bortolin, the garage is rarely full with the current number of spots and is already a money-loser. He said the last parking study the city commissioned showed Windsor was only around 66 per cent capacity.

“Any data we do have shows that we don’t need these parking spots,” said Bortolin. “That garage is never full.” The move to evict the tenants was an about-face for council, which voted about a year ago to continue allowing commercial space in the ground floor of the garage.

A few months after deciding to keep the commercial space, they decided in a closed-door meeting to convert it to parking spots.

After that move sparked a wave of outrage, council revisited the issue in a public meeting and reaffirmed the in-camera vote.

The Downtown Windsor BIA filed Freedom of Information requests for records of city hall communications leading to the controversial decision, and was told getting the information would cost nearly $14,000.

BIA chairman Larry Horwitz, who opposes the plan to kill retail in the building, wondered how city staff could get the numbers so wrong.

“I don’t understand how the information that was given to them was so flawed that the price to demolish retail and put in parking was double,” he said. “Imagine if you ran a business and you started a project and it was twice the price. Heads would be rolling.”

Horwitz said council should “immediately reverse” its decision.

“They should do a complete investigation,” he said of the estimates.