Kelowna

Kelowna City Council is being asked to approve the expenditure of an additional $400,000 to complete renovations to the second and third floors of City Hall.

The renovations were necessary to house Design and Construction Services staff displaced after the City Park Pavilion was destroyed by fire in the spring of last year.

Back in April, renovations were estimated to cost $1.6M.

There will be 14 additional workspaces and four meeting rooms added as well as additional washrooms on both the second and third level.

The city earmarked $1.22M from the pavilion insurance claim for the renovation along with an additional $380,000 approved by council back in April.

Utility and Building Projects Manager, Kevin Van Vliet says several items have contributed to driving up the cost, including:

• Extra floor space renovation to create a front counter area to relocate City Clerks to the second floor
• Unanticipated structural renovations to allow for the planned layout on the third floor
• New workstations are required in order to fit into the compact layout necessary to meet the design workstation density
• An updated cost for adding to the second floor washrooms.

The additional $400,000 would not come from new taxation but rather from other taxation funded projects that are either complete or will not be completed this year.

Council will be asked to approve the additional funds when it meets Monday.