Chatham-Kent Community Hub

Council has voted on the next step in the process to move the Civic Centre, library and museum to the former Sears building in downtown Chatham.

Key facts:

• The purchase price for the Sears building is $2.95 million.
• There are additional contract clauses including a buy-back provision in place letting the municipality initiate a repurchase of the entire property at the same price within 18 to 24 months if at any point the project does not move forward.
• A parking license agreement will be in place for 175 municipal parking spaces in the parking garage and/or the mall parking lot, with additional terms about public parking.

The report titled “Chatham-Kent Community Hub” outlines the next steps in the process, which are as follows:

• Detailed Concept Design Phase - Undertake a design process to develop architectural concept drawings, procurement specifications and updated costing.
• Stakeholder Engagement – Undertake a Public and Stakeholder Engagement exercise on the Detailed Concept Design.
• Construction RFP – Following Council approval of the Detailed Concept Design, construction drawings would be completed and a tendering process for construction would be undertaken.