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County wants to be ready to purchase Queen Elizabeth school

At last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Council took a step towards acquiring the former Queen Elizabeth School in the centre of Picton. In November of 2018, the school in was declared surplus by the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB). At the time, the County along with Prince Edward Lennox- Addington Social Services, submitted an expression of interest. In May of 2020, Council directed staff to forward a letter of intent from the CAO on behalf of Council to HPEDSB requesting the school be sold to the County for $850,000 in order to support the development of affordable and attainable housing. While only two parties expressed interest, the County was ultimately unsuccessful in its bid to be considered for the purchase of the property due to the order in which school boards are required to offer their surplus properties to other organizations.

Over the past two years, negotiations have continued between all interested parties. However, the impacts of the pandemic slowed down the negotiation process and through discussions it was discovered that the organization who was negotiating an offer to purchase this site has identified an alternate site for their purposes. This means the process of an expression of interest for the purchase of the property must be initiated for the second time for the property to be sold as surplus. It should also be noted that since the County’s 2020 offer of $850,000, the real estate market has dramatically changed and it should be expected that the prior offer would no longer be considered reasonable given the current market conditions.

According to a staff report, if the County was successful with the acquisition of this property, the master plan would be for the redevelopment of the subject lands into a mixed-use residential community that would provide a diversity of affordable and attainable housing options.

The County’s Executive Director of Housing Charles Dowdall told Council that he is anticipating that the declaration for the expression of interest by HPEDSB will take place in the transition period between this term of council and the October 24 election. “If approval is granted for the CAO, when the expression of interest becomes available for submission, so that we are on record that we have an interest in moving forward, you are not committing financially to this process. Rather it is just giving County staff the authority to put that expression of interest formalized on behalf of the County,” said Dowdall. He then explained that at that time, the County would start a 90-day process of investigating the property as far as assessment value and the potential partners and send a full report back to Council.

Councillor Stewart Bailey asked about the costs associated with a real estate assessment. Dowdall explained his estimate would be $10,000 to $15,000. “When you are evaluating a property such as this, it requires an appraiser with a specific commercial designation. Hence why you may see a premium in the associated cost of having the appraisal done,” said Dowdall. He then explained that this cost could be added into the County’s budget, or it could be facilitated through grant funding from CMHC.

Asking about the condition of the building currently, Councillor John Hirsch wondered if it would be a renovation or demolition. Dowdall said that would be part and parcel of the assessment that would be brought forward to Council. “When you are dealing with refurbishments, you are dealing with potential higher costs over a new build,” he added.

Councillor Andreas Bolik reminded Council that it already struggles with having enough money to do everything it wants.

“We are looking at a priority of providing affordable housing which is a laudable one, and we are looking at investing $850,000 to do that at a time when we are saying this County owns too much infrastructure already that we can’t maintain.”

“So if the new priority is going to be to support affordable housing, so be it. But I would suggest when we set that priority we have to look at some of the other things,” said Bolik, who suggested to send the report back to staff to reexamine what infrastructure could be offloaded to help with costs. “I would put front and centre the Picton Town Hall, which I believe was about $850,000 last time we considered the value of it. That would be a net zero investment,” he said.

Mayor Ferguson told Council that this project was brought forward many years ago, and it unfortunately got caught up in the Covid pandemic. “I think everybody understands that the key location of the site with its proximity to employment, alternative transportation, retail and commercial makes it an ideal location for affordable housing in our largest urban centre. I am hopeful that the new council, whoever is sitting on it, also recognizes that and certainly undertakes the due diligence that the importance of the property cannot be underestimated,” said Ferguson. “My sincere hope is that it is secured so we can provide families that need it with an affordable locaton to live in the heart of Picton.”

Council approved the recommendation.