‘Pretty lame facility’: Browaty raises concerns as cost estimate soars for Bison Drive rec centre

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This article was published 15/04/2024 (560 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City council’s finance chairman fears the price tag of a $94-million regional recreation facility has soared so high, Winnipeggers will be disappointed by what actually gets built.

Coun. Jeff Browaty expressed frustration that the price for the city’s portion of the South Winnipeg Recreation Campus has jumped $23 million beyond its last $71-million estimate, even though it won’t include a pool, arena or other more expensive recreation amenities.

“It’s only 75,000 to 80,000 square feet of indoor space and that’s costing $94 million… It seems like a pretty lame facility for that much money,” Browaty (North Kildonan) said during Monday’s finance committee meeting.

As an example, the councillor noted the Minto Recreation Complex in Ottawa with two NHL-sized ice rinks, a 25-metre lap pool, lazy river, an artificial turf sports field and more, cost $54 million when it opened at the end of 2014.

A decade later, the south Winnipeg recreation facility slated for Bison Drive, will feature three gymnasiums, a walking/running track, fitness areas, multi-purpose rooms and a spray pad in its first phase.

“It seems like a really mediocre facility for an awful lot of money,” said Browaty, who stressed he was not suggesting anything was “untoward” about the project itself.

A community library, leisure pool and hockey arena could be added to the Winnipeg recreation facility in future phases but only once additional funding and projects are approved.

Brent Piniuta, manager of the city’s project delivery office, told the finance committee construction costs for this type of facility are quite high, now often costing between $750 and $1,000 per square foot.

The rec campus is part of a broader project that also includes a provincial daycare and vocational building. When those amenities are included, the overall price is now expected to reach $126 million, or $37 million higher than a previously approved estimate of $89 million.

A city report blames the cost hike on a preliminary estimate that’s now being updated, a delay in securing senior government funding and “unprecedented” construction cost hikes.

Piniuta told the committee that work is underway to explore potential savings on the project, through “value engineering,” which could explore design changes and scope-reduction options.

“Scope reduction is potentially looking at reducing the programming areas. Essentially, to make up this gulf in the budget, we would have to reduce the programming by one of the interior (program) spaces, like the gyms, so go from three to two, and then take out some multi-purpose room programming as well,” he said.

Coun. Janice Lukes, whose Waverley West ward will include the rec campus, said she expects a staff report with options to address the cost hike will be released in May. Lukes hopes affordable design choices could help reduce costs but opposes scaling back the project.

“Instead of limestone on the walls, it might be a buffed concrete…. There’s no way that we’re going to do a smaller, down-sized scope. We need a walking track, we need a spray pad, we need all these things that are in (the plans),” she said.

The facility is expected to serve a four- to six-kilometre area with 120,000 residents, so every element is needed, Lukes said.

She said the project site is also empty, so the city costs include adding pipes, parking lots and other infrastructure to support it.

After the meeting, Browaty stressed the rec campus would mark a “significant” addition to the area.

He also hopes the city can cut costs through design changes, instead of scaling back the plan.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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