Sarnia City Council will consider an agreement of purchase and sale for the former Sarnia General Hospital lands when it meets next Monday.
A staff report to council recommends an agreement be authorized with GFIVE Inc., a local group of businessmen including Charles Dally, Alex Jongsma, Mark Lumley, Kenn Poore and Marty Raaymakers.
The group has a multi-faceted vision for the area bounded by Mitton St., Bright St., Mackenzie St. N, and Essex St.
Components include residential, commercial medical, general or community office, and possible construction of a new two-storey withdrawal management centre as proposed by Bluewater Health.
GFIVE wants abatement, demolition and remediation of all property north of George St. to proceed without delay.
City Solicitor Scott McEachran says they would like to complete demolition of the shuttered site completed within a year.
"And that's going to depend on obviously council approval but also the minister approval can take a couple of months," says McEachran. "But ideally the proponents would like to get this done in a year's time."
The proposed agreement would see the city pay the buyers $5.35-million toward various stages of remediation and demolition.
City staff are suggesting two strategies to finance the redevelopment. One includes drawing on reserves, the city borrowing from itself, and adding 1% to the general tax levy for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020.
The other option is to borrow externally.
The city issued a second request for proposals in February of this year and received two bids. The other failed to provide required information and was not evaluated.
The same five businessmen were involved in an initial development proposal in 2014 that did not proceed.
Since then, it's been established by the courts that the city owns the property, demolition costs are estimated at $8.8-million plus any unknown soil remediation and the vacant land in greenfield condition has received two appraisals, one for $1.235-million and another for $1.75-million.
