Jun 17, 2010 - 04:30 AM

Reka Szekely

AJAX -- The cost to transform the historic St. Francis de Sales church into a community performing arts and culture centre has risen to almost $3.4 million, doubling Ajax's portion of the bill.

Located on Church Street south of Kingston Road, the church was built in 1871 and Ajax bought it from the Archdiocese of Toronto in 2007 for $50,000. A year ago, the federal and provincial governments announced they'd be chipping in two-thirds of the $2.55 million required to turn the church into a performing arts centre. The $1.7 million was part of the stimulus package and Ajax was responsible for the final third of $850,000.

However, after repair work on the church, on Monday Ajax approved the tender for the renovation and the costs have risen to almost $3.4 million. The provincial and federal slice of the funding remains $1.7 million, leaving Ajax to increase its contribution to $1.68 million.

Rob Ford, the Town's director of finance, says the $2.55-million tab was a high-level estimate done in the space of two weeks to meet the stimulus funding deadlines and it was done without the necessary due diligence to figure out exactly how much the project would cost in order to meet the stimulus funding deadlines.

"We really had no choice if we wanted to tap into the funding," he said, adding that many municipalities find themselves in a similar circumstance with escalating costs.

Otherwise, Ajax would have borne all the costs.

"This project was always going to happen, it was just a matter of when it's going to happen," said Mr. Ford.

Some of the cost increases are associated with the glass addition to the front of the church which increases the size of the facility. For a symmetrical design, there will be two accessible washrooms and their size must be increased to meet accessibility standards; that and other costs related to the site plan add $100,000 to the tab.

Because the glass addition is close to property lines, that requires an additional fire protection system, adding $50,000.

Recommendations from the accessibility advisory committee also added $30,000 for a lift to the stage, power door operators and the size of the washrooms.

The need for additional basement excavation to accommodate the mechanical system adds $25,000 and the mechanical system itself is $150,000 more than expected. The electrical system costs were also $175,000 over the estimate.

Mr. Ford explained why these costs weren't anticipated when the Town applied for funding.

"There was no ability to look at the actual design of the building itself, that drives the scope of the project," he said, adding that the consultation process with groups such as the accessibility committee hadn't occurred either.

He said there were efforts made to rein in costs, including reducing the amount of excavation in the basement in order to create storage space, but there is a limit to how much could be cut from the project.

"When the day is done, you have to open a facility that's a useful facility, you can't open a facility that doesn't have a proper stage, proper seating, proper lights," he said.

The extra costs will come from the capital projects reserve and the building repair reserve. Mr. Ford said the majority will be paid with Ajax's share of revenue from the Veridian Corporation and some will be paid for from property taxes.

Council approved the tender without councillors or the mayor making a comment on the increased costs.