Chatham-Kent Community Hub

April 30 2025 - Chatham-Kent Community Hub - Detailed Design Phase Report to Council

Executive Summary

Administration has completed the Detailed Design for the Chatham-Kent Community Hub (CKCH), which reimagines the former Sears building at 100 King Street as a modern, accessible, and inclusive municipal space. This project consolidates services currently housed in the Civic Centre, Chatham Library branch, and Chatham-Kent Museum into one shared building.

Cost

The Class 'A' Cost Estimate for the project is $52,883,598 (inclusive of tax after rebate), which remains within the Council-approved $53 million budget. This estimate includes all essential project components, such as building acquisition, construction, consulting services, furnishings, relocations, and contingencies (including contingency for potential tariff impacts).

Cost Comparison (to upgrade existing facilities):

Recognizing that ‘something must be done’ in terms of fixing existing municipal facilities, and in contrast with the CKCH pricing above, a high-level cost comparison reveals that upgrading the current Civic Centre, Chatham Library branch, and Chatham-Kent Museum separately to meet the proposed CKCK standards for accessibility, energy efficiency, modernized infrastructure, and public service delivery, would total over $108 million—more than double the proposed CKCH project cost. Individual costs:

- Civic Centre: $54,114,740
- Library: $34,744,040
- Museum: $19,405,750

This is a total of $108,264,530, meaning upgrading the three existing facilities separately would be $55.26 million more expensive, requiring a larger debenture along with a potential significant property tax impact for Chatham-Kent residents. A detailed breakdown of these figures is provided in the report.

Facility and Accessibility

Acknowledging our growing population, the CKCH design expands the current 78,160 square feet of municipal space spread over three separate sites to 119,278 square feet of shared space—a 52% increase. The proposed CKCH design emphasizes accessibility, integrating features such as assistive technologies and adaptable spaces to both meet and exceed current AODA standards, ensuring accessibility for all Chatham-Kent residents.

The proposed CKCH design reflects significant community input and consultation with community groups such as the Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC), the Age-Friendly Committee (AFC), the Museum Advisory Committee and the Chatham-Kent Public Library Board, supporting a facility that is accessible, age-friendly and meets the needs of our important community groups.

Funding

The CKCH is fully funded with no impact to property taxes due to strategic building funding by Council over the past decade as part of the Asset Management Plan funding. Once the CKCH is completed Council will have the opportunity to declare the Library and Civic Centre to be surplus properties with proceeds offsetting some CKCH capital cost, enabling their redevelopment and additions to the downtown area. There also will be naming rights opportunities and potential for donations to the library and museum portions if Council decides to proceed to tender. A debenture will be issued for cash flow purposes at today’s historically low rates as detailed in the funding plan included in the report.

Recommendation

Administration recommends proceeding to the Construction Procurement Phase, issuing a competitive bid to qualified firms capable of delivering the project within the defined scope, timeline, and budget constraints. Once the successful applicant is identified for the general construction, Administration will be bringing a report to Council for award of the construction contract, in accordance with Purchasing By-Law #205-2023. The timeline for competitive tendering is expected to take the summer with the return to Council at a September meeting.

The CKCH supports a smaller footprint for Civic Centre staff reflecting todays needs, an energy efficient and fully accessible design, co-location of services for residents and new library and museum, all without impacts to property taxes.

Click on the links below to review the full Council report and its appendices:

• Report to Council – Chatham-Kent Community Hub – Detailed Design Phase
• Appendix A - Detailed Design Package
• Appendix B - High-Level Cost Comparison
• Appendix C - Accessibility Presentation
  
• Appendix D - ACC and AFC Meeting Summary and Feedback
• Appendix E - CKCH Class 'A' Cost Estimate
• Appendix F - CKCH Financial Plan
• CKCH Media Presentation
  

The Chatham-Kent Community Hub (CKCH) project is a large and complex undertaking and the Municipality of Chatham-Kent remains committed to ensuring that the public is informed and their opinions are considered throughout the process.

Throughout the Chatham-Kent Community Hub project, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent has facilitated multiple opportunities for public engagement. To date, there have been three public information sessions, attended by over 300 residents, and two online public surveys conducted through the Let’s Talk platform, each garnering over 1,000 responses. There have also been three Stakeholder Engagement meetings, which were held to ensure that the lived and practiced experiences from community stakeholders are heard, considered, and reflected when designs for the proposed Chatham-Kent Community Hub are being developed. The Stakeholder Engagement Group includes representatives from the CK Public Library Board, the Accessibility Advisory Committee, the Municipal Museums Advisory Committee, and the Gallery Advisory Committee. These stakeholders represent their respective boards and committees and bring feedback and input from their groups for consideration as the project progresses. There have also been several 1-on-1 meetings with local advisory committees and boards throughout the process.

On October 21, Council voted to continue forward with the Chatham-Kent Community Hub project. This vote gives administration direction to proceed with the detailed design phase of the project and hire a contracted project manager to facilitate to project. Councillor Anthony Ceccacci added two amendments to the motion to ensure financial accountability throughout the project through the creation of a fixed-cost Request for Proposal and to provide high level cost estimates for upgrading the Civic Centre, Museum and Library (including expanding it to 35,000 sq. ft. as is recommended in the Library Masterplan).

• Report to Council – Chatham-Kent Community Hub – Project Update
• Appendix A – Detailed Design Concept Drawings
• Appendix B – Design Briefs
• Appendix C – Preliminary Financial Plan
  
• Appendix D – Stakeholder Engagement & Public Consultation Feedback Summary
  

Report to Council Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D