No way seniors’ centre should cost $20M: Turner
That a new seniors’ centre building on Primrose Drive would cost nearly $20 million simply makes no sense, says Coun. Jim Turner.
“I’ve talked to quite a few different contractors in Medicine Hat and $552 a square foot is high,” said Turner. “We should be able to build, maximum, for $300 a square foot.”
On Aug. 11, 2014, at a meeting of the public services committee, held in council chambers, it was revealed the 36,000 square-foot design would cost $19.9 million. Mayor Ted Clugston called it the “Cadillac” version.
At $300 per square foot, that size of a building would cost $10.8 million.
Coun. Jamie McIntosh says the price tag of $19.9 million, “scared the heck out of all of us.”
McIntosh says initially council thought they were looking at about $6 million for a new building. Then they were told to expect about $11 or $12 million, but nobody expected nearly $20 million.
“My job was to pause and say this does not fit at all with what we were thinking,” said McIntosh. “Everybody was looking bad at that point.”
Turner says he talked to CAO Merete Heggelund, who said the high price tag was in part because there is a gymnasium and a commercial kitchen in the building.
“My brother, who owns a company in town, just built a 26,000 square-foot facility in Duchess for $2.2 million,” said Turner, who has a background in food services and has opened numerous grocery stores for large companies.
“Nothing costs what the estimate was for the building on Primrose,” said Turner.
Grant MacKay, the City of Medicine Hat’s project manager, says to determine cost the schematic design created by Ferrari Westwood Babits Architects was sent to Hanscomb Limited to calculate a realistic allocation of direct construction costs related to the building and siteworks for that specific site.
“They factored in both appropriate design and construction contingencies, as well as expected cost escalation for actual construction that (at the time) was expected to start one year out,” said MacKay. “Then estimates were established by city staff for such items as design, engineering fees and project management fees, plus furniture, fixtures and equipment, plus miscellaneous items like public art, permit fees and offsite utility connections. The total of all that was $19.9 million.”
The event centre — about 198,000 square feet at $61.4 million — works out to $310 per square foot.
“It’s extremely difficult to make a valid, relative comparison from one project to another or even with another ‘commercial’ type of building,” said MacKay. “The unique attributes of each specific site, the type of construction, the make up, intended functionality of the constructed spaces, the amount of mechanical and electrical required to support the spaces and other factors like this can dramatically impact overall cost per square foot calculations. This is vastly different than comparing one house to another or one commercial office building to another.”