KENILWORTH – Wellington North council has declined a recent pitch from a real estate trust to spend more taxpayer dollars on an intersection related to a new grocery store coming to the community.
Crombie Property Holdings Ltd., a real estate investment trust and one of several subsidiaries connected to Empire Company Ltd., which owns grocery chains such as Sobeys and Foodland, is moving closer to bringing a new 20,000-square-foot Foodland grocery store to Mount Forest.
The company owns around seven acres along Main Street where a Beer Store and Peavey Mart currently sit, and also has plans to build a fast-food restaurant on the property.
Some approvals have already been granted by the township to get things moving, but a major step remains before a final building permit can be issued.
Four “holding conditions” were placed on the property and its future development by council in 2021.
For development to progress, those conditions need to be satisfied and a council vote is required to lift the hold, allowing the final permit to be issued.
Among the conditions was a requirement for a design of an entrance and intersection at Main Street North and Mount Forest Drive be hashed out, along with a cost-sharing agreement between the township and Crombie for the work.
Council originally earmarked $525,500 in the 2023 capital budget toward the intersection — a $119,850 contribution would come from Canadian Tire, and $405,649 from tax dollars.
(The Advertiser has learned that incorrect cost-sharing dollar amounts appeared in a report to council on Tuesday. Corrected figures confirmed by the township appear in this story.)
Crombie had originally pegged the overall project cost at $925,320, meaning the company would cover 43% per cent of the overall cost. The township would contribute almost 44%, and Canadian Tire, nearly 13%.
But council was asked on Tuesday to increase the taxpayer portion of the contribution from the $405,649 originally budgeted for — a request Crombie representatives Todd Polley and Michael Glynn found resistance to.
Crombie revealed a new $1.33 million price tag for the intersection based on two quotes from an updated market costing. The township learned about the increase last month.
The Crombie representatives asked council to contribute an additional $201,810 in taxpayer dollars for a total contribution toward the project of $607,459 — a nearly 50% increase from what council had agreed to.
That would mean the township and Crombie would each contribute to 45.5% of the project cost, with Canadian Tire contributing nearly 9% of the share.
Chief building official Darren Jones noted the portion from Canadian Tire could not be increased because the township was bound by a separate agreement with the business for that amount.
“There is no opportunity to renegotiate,” he later confirmed to the Advertiser in an email.
“I’m just going to say that based on these numbers I can’t support going over budget,” councillor Sherry Burke remarked during the meeting.
Burke suggested Crombie was after a contingency based on rising construction costs. She called the increase, one she expected the company to shoulder, the “price of doing business.”
Polley, a Crombie senior project manager, told council the cost had risen because of additions to the “scope” of the project.
Township development clerk Tammy Pringle explained the cost had increased because the Ministry of Transportation demanded Mount Forest Drive be shifted to provide turning lanes.
Pringle also noted curb and gutter work needed along 150 metres of Mount Forest Drive contributed to the increase.
Council was presented with options to either approve the figure originally budgeted for ($405,649) or the requested increase ($607,459).
Council unanimously voted to decline the request for more public money by voting in favour of approving the original contribution of $405,649.
The township’s total contribution is $525,500 once the Canadian Tire portion is considered.
Mayor Andy Lennox said he wasn’t sure where council’s decision left Crombie, adding the township’s door remains open.
“I hope that we can made this work and get on with it as it’s in everybody’s interest to do so,” Lennox said.
Polley said council’s decision would be relayed to Crombie higher-ups.
Crombie senior development director Robert Blacklock did not respond to the Advertiser’s emailed request for responses to questions for this story.
