POINT ARENA CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY
AGENDA ITEM: VIII A
MEETING DATE: 3/22/2022
TITLE
Veterans Hall CDBG Planning & Technical Assistance Grant Update
RECOMMENDED ACTION
1) Receive Progress Report on the Vets Hall Renovation Planning. 2) Direct Staff
ANALYSIS
At your January 25th meeting, the Council approved moving forward with a number of studies necessary to fulfill grant requirements and to complete a bid ready design and permitted renovation project. The property survey and geologic conditions report site work are done and the reports are being completed by SHN.
The other studies that need to be done, such as biological and botanical studies will be needed for a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) will be done in late April and May.
Due to Federal Housing & Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) pass through funds from the State, when the final size of the enlarged facility footprint is determined there will be a required National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) study The depth of that study will be determined using the procedures of the U.S. NEPA.
The City’s CDBG Grant amount for the community center project is $250,000. This amount was intended to cover the effort to analyze different project types, such as new build, renovation or new build on a new site and then come up with a fully permitted final design ready to go out to bid.
The City’s grant application was submitted to HCD almost two years ago with the estimate that the designed project would likely cost around $3 million dollars to construct. Due to the pandemic, the State’s award processsignificantly slowed. During that same time period the cost of construction across the country skyrocketed. Since the submission date current cost of construction estimates have drastically surpassed the earliest estimates of project cost.
The earliest construction estimates from the project architect were for modernization of the existing building. This would include updated electrical service, connection to City sewer, appropriately sized ADA bathrooms, energy efficient windows, new exterior, etc., a modest office wing for Coastal Seniors and improvements to the existing kitchen area.
These very basic improvement costs are based on different quality standard levels. In September 2021, construction cost range of $3.6 million to $4.2 million were presented to the Council.
Staff has looked at the components of the grant and determined that a project with a construction cost of an approximately $3.4 million could be covered by the Grant. This estimate includes the studies and permitting. Obviously, the new economic conditions affected how far the grant would go.
The primary goals of the grant are to modernize the building, to regain the use of the Vets Hall as a Community Center and create a facility that can house Coastal SeniorsInc. Toward that goal, City Staff and your Vets Building Ad Hoc Committee have been working with Coastal Seniors Staff and a committee from their board since mid-year 2021. The focus of the committee work was to get a design schematic for a final design so we can move to final design, financial support for the final design and occupancy agreements that would meet the needs of all involved.
There was reluctance by Coastal Seniors to invest time, energy and money in the process.
Looking at the utilization of the Vets Hall wasn’t necessarily what many on that board had envisioned as their ultimate home.
Another contributing factor to that reluctance has been the need for Coastal Seniors to contribute funding to the cost of the design work not covered by the grant and the contract with Alameida Architecture. Coastal Seniors are being asked to cover a portion of design costs of their amenities that are above the most components of the renovation plan. These costs are due to new square footage and numerous kitchen upgrades.
The progress on getting them to figure what they needed has been very slow. After a couple misstarts, a big step in this process occurred when Coastal Seniors completed a thorough kitchen operation efficiency study and office space planning process. They submitted their initial office area and kitchen layouts, including new kitchen space at the end of November.
Those concepts were given to the architect who developed a schematic plan and estimated its costs. That schematic plan, CS cost share and risks to the project were presented to the CS Board on December 15th City and CS Staff.
The estimated construction value of their proposed design was based on a 73% increase in building footprint. That increase in size, coupled with the modernization of the existing building brought the estimated construction cost to $6 million dollars. Over half of that cost estimate was attributable to Coastal Seniors square footage and amenities requests.
Our original submission planning was based on the previous CDBG round of 2020. This new estimated cost would require a two-year allocation of the maximum of $3 million for each year. Even with that amount funded only the construction and not the project soft costs such as oversite inspections, etc. would have been funded. Those costs could range up to $900,000.
Their significant share of design costs based on this larger value created another round of discussion within the Coastal Seniors organization. Also during this period, the Coastal Seniors Executive Director resigned effective January 14, 2021. These developments together with the holiday season slowdown, CS board leadership taking up many day-today responsibilities of the organization and a recruitment for a new E.D., the collaborative design progress pretty much came to a standstill.
In early March, in an effort to bring the estimated construction costs down by at least 15%, the Coastal Seniors Building Committee went through a review of the office and kitchen design. They worked onsite for two sessions of about 4 hours each and many hours away from the building working to cut the construction costs of their portion of the project by as much as 15%
The CS review process was completed Tuesday March 17 with changes that should bring the total estimated construction costs of the renovation project down somewhere near 20% to a range of $4.7 to $5 million. Applying the architect’sformulas to the smaller square footage they are now proposing couple with some other changes, their funding contribution to the design process should see an approximately 40% reduction.
Aa of the writing of this report the most recent CS design changes had been submitted to our architect for calculating the likely construction cost estimate and for creating a new schematic. Staff will try and have those for you at the meeting.
Staff will furnish further information and answer questions about the report during the meeting.
FISCAL IMPACT
Studies are funded through the CDBG Technical Assistance and Planning Grant from HCD.
ATTACHMENTS
None at this time.
CITY MANAGER SIGNATURE
_________________________________ _________________________________ Richard Shoemaker, Special Projects Manager Paul Andersen, City Manager