Burnaby staff have released new renderings of the giant $260-million redevelopment of Cameron Community Centre and Library in Lougheed Town Centre.
The new development at 9523 Cameron St. will include a three-storey building with a new stainless steel community pool, a gymnasium with two full-sized basketball courts, meeting rooms, a civic plaza and an expanded library.
The Cameron redevelopment came in “substantially over budget” last month, so staff have been doing value engineering exercises to bring the project back on track. The contractor’s estimate was just under $350 million, according to chart in a city presentation document. The city is seeing construction costs increasingly escalate for a variety of services from excavation to mechanical and electrical to roofing to concrete.
Charles Allen, the city’s director of civic building projects, said the changes to the project to bring it on budget are generally simplifications to the design. He said staff are working with the contractors to find savings through construction materials, with no changes to the programming.
“That’s one thing that’s very important to all of our project teams, to ensure that we achieve as much of the original programming that was originally intended,” Allen told councillors at the financial management committee Nov. 21.
The current Cameron facility, which is almost 40 years old, is in its last few months of existence.
Staff plan to begin construction on the redevelopment in the second quarter of 2024, after a temporary facility for Cameron’s programs is constructed in a space at Lougheed mall in the first quarter of next year. Construction for the permanent facility is expected to finish in the first quarter of 2027.
The temporary facility at Lougheed will include library services, seniors’ programs, dance and music programs, artist and theatre groups and more, though not all Cameron programs will be hosted at the temporary facility.
