THUNDER BAY — A number of city staff will be relocated to the city's north side, even after a spirited council discussion.
Work continues on the seventh floor of the Whalen Building to accommodate staff from the revenue division of the city, who will give up their offices at city hall.
The city will move its legal services division from the third floor at city hall to consolidated space on the main floor.
Coun. Rajni Agarwal argued the Whalen Building offers prime office space that should instead be used to attract companies to Thunder Bay.
“That is the ultimate prime location with the prettiest view that we have in Thunder Bay, and we are giving it to our administration. We should be asking Mr. or Mrs. whoever from ABC Mining company, because we are aggressively going after these mining companies, ‘you need rental space for your head office, we have the prime spot with the best view of our community,” Agarwal said.
Agarwal added that by giving the office space to administration, the city will lose out on revenue and decrease the value of the building.
The city put out a pair of requests for proposal last November and this February, only to receive one bid by an unqualified firm each time.
The city awarded the work in a negotiation with Critchley Hill Architecture, alongside TBT Engineering as a sub-consultant for the work, which will cost $90,000.
Staff are urging council to continue on with Critchley Hill to move onto Phase 2, which entails moving the legal services division into the vacated space at city hall.
City clerk Krista Power said the work done by revenue and legal services, as well as construction services supervisor Kelvin Jankowski, would have gone back to square one should council have decided not to go ahead with the work.
“This decision was made in the last term to council, you would not need a motion to open things back up. However, if council doesn’t approve of this [decision], essentially what [would] happen is a standstill,” Power said. “We are coming back to council saying we don’t have enough space for the workers, you have directed us to do this work and now we have to find another space for the workers to go.”
Coun. Michael Zussino had a poignant question for the elected officials.
“How long has the seventh floor of the Whalen building been empty?” he asked. “If this is such prime real estate space, how come no one has taken it?”
He added that the first and second floor of the building is empty due to Synergy North moving to the fourth floor.
The Whalen Building is a designated heritage structure and was built in 1913.
It has undergone numerous interior renovations over the years, most recently in 2013.
