The City of North Vancouver’s new Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre may still be a hole in the ground but its costs are climbing skyward.
City staff updated council on the project Monday, including the news that costs for the centre would now be $230 million, up from the $205 million the city budgeted when approving the project in 2021.
“We’ve experienced many subtrades closing [contracts] significantly over our budget estimates, including our excavation, envelope, drywall and glazing,” deputy chief administrative officer Barbara Pearce told council. “These costs have been increased due to a number of factors including inflation, interest rates, supply chain issues, increased fuel costs, labour costs and just general inflation of goods.”
About $4 million in additional costs is for the remediation of contaminated soil, which wasn’t anticipated after the initial environmental site review. As part of the excavation for the building’s foundation and underground parking, crews have had to haul away more than 3,000 truckloads of soil contaminated by road salt and naturally occurring arsenic, Pearce said.
To help make up for the shortfall, the city will be using $8.7 million collected in development cost charges normally reserved for parks and $16.2 million in community amenity contributions paid by developers.
At this point, 86 per cent of the contracts required for the remainder of the work have been signed and there is some hope that inflationary pressures and costs for construction materials will subside as the project goes on.
Throughout much of 2023, crews will be at work on the foundation. In 2024, the building’s structure will come together, with the centre's opening targeted for the end of 2025, Pearce said.
The approval process for the new rec centre hasn’t been as speedy as the facility’s namesake, a Canadian track and field champion, with council debates and public processes dating back more than a decade.
In July 2018, council approved a $237-million Harry Jerome rebuild including a 50-metre pool, curling rink and rooftop sports courts. But, in 2019, the new council hit pause on issuing construction contracts. When the Harry Jerome rebuild came back for approval in 2020, council scaled it down, losing the larger pool, a second gymnasium and curling. The hope was to reduce the capital cost to an estimated $180 million and lower operational costs over the life of the new centre. Late in 2021, a deal to finance construction through a long-term lease of the adjacent lands for redevelopment by Darwin Properties fell through, requiring the city to seek short-term loans to keep the project going.
Mayor Linda Buchanan acknowledged the price tag is higher than what council had hoped for but said cost estimates don’t always pan out.
“This is the largest investment that the city has done and despite the pandemic and despite the economic challenges and inflation, we’re on track for 2025 and I’m extremely pleased to hear that,” Buchanan said, adding that she was proud of the work that had gone into getting the project along this far. “While the budget has changed in various factors, I feel that what you’ve presented us is moving the project forward. I’m very confident and I think we have planned for scenarios like this.”
