Though – as it was emphasized several times Monday night – none of us has an MBA, except, of course, the treasurer…
However…
Setting aside any debate about the aesthetics of the Sprung structures that will soon rise over Central Park and Heritage Park, covering a new ice rink and Centennial Pool (respectively), or the concept of Central Park as a community hub (because I don’t think we’re straying from it as far as some might think), financially – based on what got presented to council – Sprung may be the best financial option for Collingwood.
Weighing it against the proposal (granted, probably not fully fleshed out because of the time constraints), Sprung wins hands down. Consider…
Ameresco was proposing a $27 million project, with $7 upfront from the town, and $20 million ‘mortgaged’ over 20 years. If you consider we could use the proceeds from the Collus sale, $7 million doesn’t affect the taxpayer. However, the ‘mortage’ does – about $1.4 million a year. Now, there were potential revenues for the Ameresco deal, between retail leasing of 10,000 square feet of concession space, and revenue from propping solar panels on the roof.
With an average lease rate of $15 a square foot, that only brings in about $150,000 a year (assuming the building was fully leased), and based on the PowerStream numbers from two weeks ago (assuming you could put the same number of solar panels on the roof of the facility as what PowerStream was talking about), that’s $70,000. Throw in the operational cost savings of a couple hundred thousand, and taxpayers still need to fund the debt to about $900,000 a year.
The Sprung buildings, based on the numbers from the treasurer, which weren’t made public until last night, will result in an additional $350,000 – mostly in additional staffing.
(That’s to assume that – given we’re moving the fire department next door to the pool – we can’t get the firefighters, between answering calls, to double as lifeguards at Centennial Pool. I mean, they know CPR, right? They just don’t jump into the deep end wearing their bunker gear. However, that said, you’ll never be able to unsee the image of Fire Chief Trent Elyea wearing a Speedo…)
So financially, by comparing apples with, well, almost apples, councillors did – in the end – make the most fiscally-responsible decision. Could it have been better informed? Probably, though as Sandy Cunningham noted, you can always do another report, and another, and never get anywhere.
Now, to look forward to next year’s ribbon cuttings…
