The Build Kamloops Select Committee has voted to send a staff request for $7-million to complete detailed design work for the Centre for the Arts to City Council for further debate, and possible approval.

Capital Projects Manager Matt Kachel says the money is intended to help get the long-proposed facility – which is now expected to cost at least $120-million – into a project that is shovel ready.

“Now that we know exactly what the scope is, we can figure out what that all looks like in terms of cost, how we’re going to do it, what the timelines look like with a high degree of accuracy,” Kachel told the Committee Monday.

“The other thing we’re able to do by advancing this project this way is put ourselves in a position to actually apply for grants. Most of them require you to have some skin in the game or some investment from the city but also you need to do enough design to show that your project is far enough along.”

Corporate Services Director David Hallinan noted Monday that the City will use a short-term loan to pay for this design and validation work, if council gives its approval next month.

“The short-term debt component will not create any impact on taxpayers today. It allows us the ability to be able to cashflow this project accordingly,” Hallinan said. “Should the public decide that they are all in favour of taking this program forward, we are then able to convert that short-term debt into long-term debt and package it as part of the overall project costs.”

“In the event that that does not come forward in that manner, we would come back to council with an alternative to be able to pay down the short-term debt.”

Kachel says $1.5-million of the $7-million will be spent on project validation, with the remaining $5.5 million going towards the detailed design.

“The nice thing about the validation phase is it brings in the builders into the early design phases of the project so we really can map out what the trajectory of the project looks like, construction all of that, what the risks are, and really get that into the costing as we go along so that we’re not designing something and re-designing and re-designing,” Kachel added.

“It allows us to put it to paper once and then move forward with something in confidence with all the risks together.”

Calling the project “a no brainer,” Councillor Dale Bass said she was concerned with how the plans would be presented to Kamloopsians, who would need to vote on how to pay for the Performing Arts Centre as well as other components of the Build Kamloops plan.

“I am concerned about marketing it to the public because I’m already hearing $7-million for plans? Are you kidding me?” Bass said.

Councillor Katie Neustaeter said while $7-million seems like a lot for plans, there is “no way around that.”

“That costs what that costs. And we’re going to do it right,” Neustaeter said.

“The Fawcetts have already done it right to this point and invested millions of their own dollars already, we cannot thank them enough. But now it’s ours to take on and take to the next step and show that we are willing to partner in this work as well.”

In March of last year, the City allocated $1 million of its nearly $15.7 million share of the provincial Growing Communities grant towards the Build Kamloops initiative, with another approximately $4.3 million unallocated at this time.

“We knew that [a short-term loan] would be perfectly allowable with regards to going forward on a project that has a degree of uncertainty and leaving those funds available, which potentially could be monies used to go forward as a payment or repayment on that project initially,” Hallinan added Monday.

There is also a plan to use one per cent ($1.35 million) of the nearly 11 per cent property tax hike in 2024 to support future debt repayment that would be required to finance the overall Build Kamloops plan.

“Yes, we’re looking at the Performing Arts Centre right now, buts this is one piece of a larger plan for Build Kamloops,” Neustaeter added Monday, noting the plans also include things like new ice rinks and a new pool.

“All of these pieces hinge on each other. Although we have to look at them in isolation, we should never consider them in insolation.”

The current estimates indicate that the Kamloops Centre for the Arts – which was identified as the top priority in the City’s Recreational Master Plan – will cost approximately $120-million, nearly double the previous estimate of $70-million from early 2020 because of inflation and other related cost increases.

“We wouldn’t be asking for that over one year, because there is no way we could spent $120-million in one year,” Civic Operations Director Jen Fretz said on NL Newsday.

“That is also part of what this validation and detailed design will help us understand. What is the work plan? How much can we get done? What kind of money would we need each year in order to phase that ask of council and the public?”

In Nov. 2020, a report to the former City Council showed that a revived Kamloops Centre for the Arts could cost $90 million because of an increase in construction costs at that time.

“The public will have to weigh in in some way shape or form, so this is not council or the committee having approved the build,” Fretz added. “This is them having recommended that we move to the next stage of the process.”

An initial referendum to borrow up to $49 million for a $90 million Performing Arts Centre – which would have included a 355-stall underground parkade – was voted down in 2015.

The revived plans to borrow up to $45 million for a $70-million project with a 70-stall underground parkade was set to go to referendum on Apr. 4, 2020, before it was postponed because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In his report to the committee, Kachel estimated that if approved, the validation work will take between three and six months to complete, while the detailed design work will up to one year.

Based on those timelines, he said a groundbreaking ceremony could be held in the spring of 2026, with the facility poised to open its doors in 2028.

Committee wants to hear from Fawcett family

The Build Kamloops Committee also voted to invite Ron Fawcett of the Kelson Group – who had pledged to donate between $8-and $10-million towards to a new Performing Arts Centre when plans were first presented five years ago – to the Feb. 6 City Council meeting.

Bass says that would allow her and her colleagues to get a first-hand update on the status of the project directly.

“Where we are at with it, what he sees as being potential timelines just so we can start talking to the public about this because we’ve got the video and its great, but we need to start that conversation as well, as I think he’s possibly the best ambassador for this than any one of us,” Bass said.

Could TNRD residents help pay for this new facility?

A second motion from Bass to ask the City to negotiate with the TNRD to see if residents in regional district – particularly those in the vicinity of Kamloops – will help pay for a facility that they will benefit from was also approved.

“The reality here is whatever we build, people from outside Kamloops will come to it,” Bass said. “Seems to me they should participate in the creation of it in some way, because they will benefit from it.”

Councillor Margot Middleton asked Bass if she wanted to specify that the city is looking for partnerships with electoral areas that border Kamloops.

Bass said she did not want to limit any potential discussion that might come up in case there were other residents also interested in contributing.

“Maybe 70 Mile might be interested as well, you know, just give them that option,” Bass said.