The excavation is complete and North Vancouver’s new museum is already in a hole.
Located on the 100 block of West Esplanade, the new museum is set to feature a restored streetcar and exhibits that unearth North Van’s Indigenous history and chronicle its transformative logging boom. But in order to make that history come alive, the museum’s $5.5-million budget needs to grow by about $550,000, according to museum director Nancy Kirkpatrick.
“It may not be possible” to deliver the museum – set to open in early 2020 – without that infusion of cash, Kirkpatrick explained to council Monday.
With construction costs set to rise by as much as one per cent each month, the museum’s budget is being gobbled up by both a skilled labour shortage and uncertainties around trade relations between Canada and the United States, according to Kirkpatrick’s report.
“The Trumpster down in Washington has certainly not helped us with respect to the price of wood,” Coun. Rod Clark said. “I know construction (costs) are going up dramatically.” Noting the museum has yet to receive its final cost estimate, Clark called the potential overrun “frightening.”
Density may be the best way to ease that fright, according to Coun. Pam Bookham.
The museum is set to be on the first floor of Polygon Homes’ 14-storey condo project. A possible solution might be “adding a floor or two” to the development, Bookham said. “We know what’s happening in terms of tariffs and how that’s impacting projects like this. If we want to have a good project we need to find the wherewithal to ensure that it can be delivered. . . . We need to get behind this project.”
While there has yet to be any discussion about turning Polygon’s midrise into a highrise, city staff said the developer council submit a revised application subject to public consultation and council’s support.
Polygon would explore changes at the city’s request, according to company president Neil Chrystal. However, adding a floor or two to a building already under construction could mean logistical challenges relating to parking and building height.
“I’d have to move everybody up two floors; they’d probably be very happy with that,” he said. “If asked, we’d certainly look at it, but I think it might be a little late in the process.”
As council’s representative on the museum commission, Coun. Don Bell suggested the new budget was “reasonable under the circumstances.”
Less enthused was Coun. Craig Keating.
Council voted unanimously for the museum in 2016 under the agreement the federal government would contribute $3 million and the city would pay $2.5 million. However, Keating sounded concern about the museum’s financial feasibility two years ago, suggesting the city craft a “Plan B” in case the project went awry.
While Keating voted to hear a future request for more funding, he emphasized that his vote on Monday was “without prejudice.”
“I don’t want anybody to read into my affirmative vote on this that it in any way it endorses that as a financial path forward,” he said.
The initial budget included a $490,000 contingency fund, $100,000 of which is no longer available, according to city staff.
In order to get as much value for dollar as possible, Kirkpatrick pointed to $400,000 in savings achieved by using less ornate finishes and cheaper materials.
The new $6.1-million budget includes several items – a new reception counter, audio-video equipment, a security system and moveable walls – that were excluded from the previous budget. To cover some of those costs the museum is in the midst of a campaign to raise $2.5 million, according to Kirkpatrick. Following a more subdued approach of seeking gifts from private donors in 2018, the campaign is expected to go public in 2019.
Council is slated to discuss paying extra costs for the museum in September, following a comprehensive budget estimate in the summer.
Couns. Linda Buchanan and Holly Back – both of whom refrained from making comments on Monday – previously expressed concerns about the museum becoming a financial burden on the city.
