Resource Centre property sold

Details

Published on Tuesday, February 28, 2017

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Press/Neepawa Banner

The land where the Neepawa Resource Centre currently sits will soon have a new owner. On Tuesday, Feb. 21, Neepawa town council passed a motion to sell the property at 290 Davidson Street to Budz ‘n Bloom Daycare. 

Budz ‘n Bloom was one of three interested parties who submitted tenders to buy the centre. The others were CJ Radio, who made an offer of $20,000 and Brews Brothers, which brought forward an offer of $25,000. The winning bid from Budz ‘n Bloom’s consisted of two options. One was for $5,000 for the land and the building as is. The second option was $50,000, but for a cleared lot, meaning the existing structure would be demolished by the Town. 

Chief administrative officer Colleen Synchyshyn noted that the Town researched Budz ‘n Bloom’s second proposal and found that, “The net value of the $50,000 against the demolition of the building would be equal and similar to the other two bids.” Administration brought to council the recommendation of accepting Budz ‘n Bloom’s second option, citing that it, “Provides a solution that addresses the critical shortage of licensed daycare within the community, by placing a publicly owned property back in the hands of the community that [town council] serves”.

During the question and comments portion of the deliberations, councillor and deputy mayor Darryl Gerrard noted that this decision would be tax neutral. He said that day care facilities are  exempt from property tax, but they already received no revenue from the site because it was owned by the town. 

Upon learning about the council’s decision Budz ‘n Bloom board member Marla Steen noted that this is a significant step forward for their expansion plans.

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to expand our daycare and we appreciate the support from the Town of Neepawa.  We are in the very early planning stages and will release more details as they come available,” noted Steen, in a statement from the board.

Budz ‘n Bloom, who currently operate out of a 4,400 square foot location on Hamilton Street in Neepawa, have been working for over two years on a multi-phased expansion plan. The day care has been looking at opening up a new facility, but also keep their existing building operational. The thought is that having the two separate buildings operating at the same time will meet the rapidly growing need within the community for more available child care spaces to be met.

The town, which had owned the Resource Centre since the mid’ 90s, announced in 2015 that it was no longer financially feasible to maintain its stake, due to increasing costs to keep the structure up to code. It was estimated at that time that about $300,000 in capital improvements would be required to bring the building up to the current standard. At this point, there is no official timeline for the full scale demolition of the building, though the Town would like to move forward on it in as timely a manner as possible.