At the January 13 meeting of Leamington council, administration brought forward an update on the remedial work being done on the historic Arts Centre building in uptown Leamington, along with a recommendation that council make a decision on whether to continue the restoration work or look at other options.
Last July, council decided to accept a plan to restore the east-facing outside façade on the building due to a deteriorating exterior. Protective scaffolding was set up immediately to deal with any safety issues to the public or neighbouring businesses, which was labeled as Phase 1 of the project.
Phase 2 involved implementing the restoration of the east facing wall to correct the deficiencies identified in Phase 1 with a substantial portion of the restoration scheduled to be completed in April of this year. Cost for this phase is around $99,000.
A further assessment done recently showed that Phase 3, which includes the remaining façade and building exterior, would need extensive work to the tune of about $1.6 million.
Phase 4 would address interior needs such as plumbing, HVAC, sanitary system and accessibility upgrades. A new roof membrane and new rooftop HVAC units were installed in 2023.
Before council on the 13th was the question on whether to continue on to Phase 3 or look for alternatives such as selling the building to private interests.
Leamington CAO Peter Neufeld clarified that before they do the critical work of Phase 3, they first have to get the work done that they’ve already committed to.
Councillor Anthony Abraham spoke about selling the building to private contractors who could then do the work at a fraction of the cost that the municipality could.
“Then we could take that money and put it toward finding a new modern home for the Arts Centre,” he said.
Councillor Heather Latam said she wanted to preserve the historical aspect of the building.
“I disagree,” she said. “I think we want to keep some of the historically beautiful buildings in our downtown. My question is, have we spoken to the people at the Arts Centre? What are their thoughts?”
CAO Neufeld said he hadn’t had any discussions with the Arts Centre, reminding council that the Arts Centre is a tenant in the municipally-owned bulding.
“The responsibility falls back to the municipality and taxpayers to determine what happens with the future of that building,” he said.
Councillor Paul Tiessen said that the decision was made last summer, so he felt that they should go through with the plan.
“In order to preserve some of the history in this town, I think we need to go about this,” he said. “We keep the outside looking historical and do the inside as needed.”
Councillors Bill Dunn and Tim Wilkinson agreed with Tiessen as to keeping the building and restoring it.
“We know that we have some bad landlords (uptown) and I would hate to see such a historic building turned over to the wrong hands,” said Wilkinson. “I look at this as an investment in one of the last buildings that truly celebrate our heritage.”
Mayor Hilda MacDonald agreed, saying the iconic building is part of the town’s history and should be restored.
“This is part of our history. Look at how people felt about the tomato,” she said. “To me this is worth it. We don’t have to do it all at once.”
Councillor Abraham stuck to his opinion, saying that the cost over 20 years would skyrocket and that council needs to pay attention to the costs for future generations.
In the end, Councillor Tiessen moved to accept the recommendation for Option A, which was to direct administration to proceed with tendering the Phase 3 capital repairs.
The motion was carried with only Councillor Abraham opposing.
