Faced with substantial renovation costs and five additional administrative facilities requiring substantial upgrades, HWDSB has been working on a proposal to consolidate its administrative operations since 2007.
The Board facilitated a lengthy consultation process that included a vision and clarification document that saw community stakeholders provide input on the future of the Education Centre. It also involved the development of a detailed functional program, creation of site selection criteria and model for a business case.
Sites were selected using a list of criteria that included accessibility, amenities, building operating costs, capital costs, economic impact, environmental sustainability, location, parking, proximity, site size, site zoning and timing. All sites were professionally assessed by real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield and Ventin Group.
The Board had been working with the City of Hamilton regarding a potential move to the West Harbourlands. That site was eventually discarded when the cost of remediation to the land was deemed too high.
In March 2011, the Board declared its current Education Centre property at 100 Main Street West as surplus to its needs. That motion marked the beginning stages of the move to Crestwood, located at 50 Millwood Place. Based on the detailed analysis, the Crestwood location was selected because of the financial viability of the business plan, because the site was immediately available and because the location met the established criteria.
The conditional sale of the 100 Main Street West property to McMaster University was approved after the Board received support from the Ministry of Education for its Education Centre Project business case. The Ministry of Education had requested the Board scale back the square-footage of the project from 139,438 to 113,500.
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Site Selection Criteria Model
Sites were selected using a list of criteria that included accessibility, amenities, building operating costs, capital costs, economic impact, environmental sustainability, location, parking, proximity, site size, site zoning and timing. All sites were professionally assessed by real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield and Ventin Group.
It is important to note that the site criteria was not the sole determinant used to select a future site for the Education Centre. The criteria was used to identify and narrow down the top 10 sites. Those sites were then examined in more detail regarding availability as well as program suitability. From there, the Board directed administration to develop business cases on its top three sites.
