BIM moving forward with construction of the Community Centre; Project budget updated to $18.7 m.
Bowen Island Municipality has issued a letter of intent to award the construction contract for the Community Centre to Golden Globe Construction Ltd. for $14.4 million, bringing the total project budget to $18.7 million.
BIM released tender documents for the project in the summer of 2021. Three bids were received, all exceeding the original construction budget estimated in 2018.
The original 2018 construction budget of $10.5 million was stale-dated, and an updated November 2020 cost estimate identified a potential construction cost closer to $12 million. These cost increases are due to time-escalation as well as improved energy performance, increased accessibility and improved ventilation throughout the facility and sufficient capacity to meet existing municipal staffing complement.
In addition, the following factors are part of the cost escalation:
- Throughout the global pandemic, demand for construction raw materials, commodities and labour has steadily and significantly risen. This can be attributed in part to senior government funding flooding the infrastructure market, and to a boom in residential and commercial construction as people seek to expand/renovate their homes/businesses.
- Decreased production and supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic is ongoing across almost all sectors. There has been decreased production from pandemic disruptions resulting in supply chain disruptions across almost all sectors.
- A small island faces additional challenges such as increased transportation and logistics of material acquisition and significant labour costs with off-island contractors and workers.
Over the past three months, the project management team worked with Golden Globe (the lowest bidder) in a value engineering process to identify infrastructure savings and cost reductions, while ensuring the building still meets functional programming needs and energy performance as designed. Approximately $500,000 in cost savings were identified through this process.
Additional revenue sources and fundraising will be required to finance the updated budget for the Community Centre. For this purpose, the following are anticipated to fill the funding gap:
- Canada Cultural Spaces grant: research indicates the Community Centre project would be eligible for additional grant funding on top of the $7.9 million Investing in Canada Infrastructure grant, and an application to this program will be submitted in 2022.
- COVID-19 Safe Restart Fund for Local Governments: $1.2 million from this fund, transferred to the Municipality in 2020, can be used toward this project.
- Community fundraising: in addition to $1.3 million already pledged in donations, the fundraising campaign will be re-launched in December in anticipation of reaching an additional fundraising target of $1.5 million.
- A reduction of $250,000 in the contingency budget.
More information will be updated on the project website in the coming weeks. Construction is anticipated to begin with site preparation in January, 2022.
