Redevelopment of Glenora Community League

Over the last 12 months the Glenora Community League redevelopment committee has shifted their focus from the outdoor space to our community league building.

The current building was constructed in 1975 with a major renovation in 1987. It consists of a gymnasium, a preschool classroom, a meeting room, kitchen, washrooms, storage and a skate change room. The building is a two-storey concrete structure over a slab on grade foundation. The combined floor area of the building is approximately 8750 square feet.

In the last 12 months we obtained a planning grant from the City of Edmonton and have applied those funds to engaging the services of Andrea Hestvik to help us come up with a concept for redevelopment. Andrea is an architect as well as the Facilities Director at Crestwood community league.

Prior to engaging Hestvik, the EFCL commissioned a building assessment with Avison Young and Senaltek architecture. It documented the condition and recommended action on the different components and systems in the building. The building foundation and concrete masonry are described as in fair to good condition but there are many other areas such as the gym roof and gym floor that are described as in poor condition.

We completed surveys with community league members in 2019 and 2023. We have visited and connected with other community league halls including Crestwood, Laurier, Parkview, Knottwood, Highlands and more. We have had discussions with groups that regularly use the community hall including the preschool and indoor playground. We have gathered feedback from the community league board members who manage events, hall rentals, soccer, memberships, finance and run the community league. Aron Pawliw the Building and Grounds Director and Peter Biro the Sports Director have detailed knowledge of the building and have been providing their expertise throughout the planning.

The general feedback from the people that completed the surveys, the board members and others was that the community members like our building but it needs to be fixed and renovated. They want to keep our pre-school and indoor playground as they are an “excellent introduction to the community” that creates a “hub of activity for decades”. The gym is a “coveted amenity” that is nice for “community events and birthday parties”. What they don’t like are the washrooms and the general tiredness of the exterior and interior of the building. The washrooms need to be “fixed” and ideally accessible from the outside. The kitchen could be refreshed. A covered patio for events and just getting out of the rain or sun while watching kids in the playground would be nice to have.

Key Redevelopment Principles

The “Outside-In” Approach means enclosing the exterior before spending money on the interior.

Improvements must be Visible means that each phase will make tangible changes to the building that can be seen, anticipated and appreciated by the community as the building is renewed.

Efficiencies of Space, Systems and Energy Use means leveraging the space we have and looking for ways to save energy.

This is our existing floor plan

Redevelopment Plan

This high level plan has been developed for the purposes

gathering feedback from community members
initiate the planning process with the City of Edmonton
start the budget process and funding plan

It involves general concepts and not detailed layout decisions. We took this plan and reached out to Paul Gantar, P.Eng. at Stanley Construction to provide a High Level Construction budget for each phase of the plan. Thank you Paul for your contribution.

Based on these principles and the input gathered this is an overview of the plan.

The plan has been broken down into 5 phases as follows.

Phase 1

Gym Roof & Exterior Cladding and Phase 1b Gym Interior (including HVAC and slab)

We have had ongoing water issues in the gym. The outdoor redevelopment added a concrete skirt around the building to prevent water coming in from the sides of the building but there is still a moisture issue under the gym floor. The likely source of the water is the heating vents that are below the gym floor. There is also evidence of other areas on the gym roof and walls where water is coming in. The recommendation is that the in-ground heating vents need to be abandoned, the slab repaired or replaced and the gym HVAC system replaced. Before that work can be done it makes sense to redo the roof and cladding that is assessed as being in poor to fair condition. There was some discussion about adding new windows to the exterior but the concern was the impact on the heating and cooling of the gym.

Phase 1 will ensure the gym is sealed, better insulated and with an upgrade the gym HVAC system.

Phase 1 estimated high level budget of $1,225,000 based on a construction budget of $980,000 plus 25% for consulting work, permits, testing and contingency.

Phase 2

Remaining Exterior including the Low Roof and Remaining Cladding

This was added as a separate phase as this work can be completed independently from the gym. This work would include upgrading the remainder of the building exterior, including the sloped roof, cladding, insulation and door and window openings. There is a list of deficiencies in the building assessment that mostly involve protecting the building from additional water leakage which would be addressed with this phase. This would be an opportunity to improve the insulation of the building and improve the exterior appearance.

Phase 2 estimated high level budget of $937,500 based on a construction budget of $750,000 plus 25% for consulting work, permits, testing and contingency.

Phase 3

Remaining Exterior including the Low Roof and Remaining Cladding

Once the exterior is enclosed and the gym is in good working condition we can move to the improvements inside the building. Anyone who has used the hall knows that the washrooms are in dire need of improvement. The pre-school as well as any groups renting or using the gym have long requested upgrades to the washrooms. The building assessment has noted deficiencies in the flooring, the layout and overall accessibility of the washrooms. It would be difficult to do a small renovation on the washrooms and achieve the required improvements. The plan takes the current space used for the washrooms and then takes over the hallway space as well as space in the current storage room resulting in a much bigger footprint for washrooms. The plan shows upgraded and accessible mens and womens washrooms, the addition of a family washroom, a rink shack washroom as well as a washroom directly in the pre-school space.

The plan achieves the in class washroom by moving the pre-school from its current location on the south of the building to a potentially larger space on the west side of the building. This will take over the existing meeting room as well as the sports storage room. This location improves access to the washroom for the preschoolers and allows the teachers to stay in the classroom while a child goes to the washroom. The teachers at the pre-school are excited with the potential switch but want to make sure there is no reduction to their in class storage and locked storage space. Additional windows and doors will be required in the new design. Ideally, the new space could be redeveloped without a school year interruption to the pre-school.

The current rink shack is a large space with a separate office and water room. The office was originally designed for a rink attendant to watch over the ice rink. We no longer need this space for an office. The area for changing skates could be reduced in size and the plan has a washroom accessible to skaters without opening up the entire building. The rink maintenance equipment has some storage needs and the pre-school has eyed up this area as a potential for additional storage.

The plan does not describe specific details on these areas, just the conceptual design.

Phase 3 estimated high level budget of $1,200,000 based on a construction budget of $960,000 plus 25% for consulting work, permits, testing and contingency.

Phase 4

Remaining Exterior including the Low Roof and Remaining Cladding

The existing main entrance facing east to 136 street would be moved to the south side of the building. This would have large welcoming doors and windows that look out onto the splash park and playground. Ideally the roof line could be extended to provide a covered patio area including a barbecue. During community events people could easily access the washrooms from these main doors. The kitchen could have an additional window to sell drinks. The pre-school children would have a more direct route from the pre-school to the playground.

The existing pre-school would be renovated to be a meeting space for small groups using tables and chairs, parents watching their children in the playground and general gathering and socializing.

The current thought is to turn the existing 136 Street entrance into a sports storage area accessible directly from the outside with a key fob. Soccer coaches would have access to this storage area without needing to contact a board member to open up the hall. Ideally all exterior doors could be updated with an electronic access system that requires less volunteer management.

The new entrance would require the cement pathway from 136 street to be moved a few meters south and some signage may be required to direct people to the new entrance.

Phase 4 estimated high level budget of $187,500 based on a construction budget of $150,000 plus 25% for consulting work, permits, testing and contingency. .

Phase 5

Kitchen refresh (including cabinets, appliances, HVAC, floor, walls, ceiling)

Glenora community hall is mostly a light activity gym, meeting space and pre-school. The existing kitchen is relatively small, has a basic stove and fridge, the shelves are heaving and the cabinets are dated. Functionally, you can keep drinks cold, reheat something small and do some light meal preparation. We are not planning any big changes to the basic design of the kitchen but would like to see it renovated to make it more useful as a kitchen for day to day use, community events and birthday party type hall renters.

Other community halls have banquet facilities which can accommodate cooking and serving food, stages or areas for entertainment with lots of windows and patio access. That is not what we are going for. A commercial kitchen would not only be much more costly, it would take up a larger space and would require compliance with additional health and safety regulations. The current building layout would have to be dramatically modified and the interior greatly upgraded to achieve a banquet hall comparable to Laurier or Parkview. We also don’t have the parking lot space for out of community visitors to easily park. Having a banquet hall also requires additional volunteers or paid positions for renting, monitoring and cleaning. As a result, we did not include making a banquet hall as a requirement in our plans. Having said that, we still need hall rental revenue to pay operating expenses for the hall.

Phase 5 estimated high level budget $125,000 based on a construction budget of $100,000 plus 25% for consulting work, permits, testing and contingency.

Total renovation estimated high level budget $3,675,000 based on a construction budget of $2,940,000 plus 25% for consulting work, permits, testing and contingency.

The cost of renovation can be compared to the estimated cost of a complete rebuild. Based on the current square footage and the costs from other community leagues that have completed new builds, replacing the existing building would likely cost from $4.75M to $6M. Ideally a renovation will allow us to continue to use parts of our building while the other parts are renovated. A rebuild would likely involve being without a building for 12-24 months.

Next Steps

The next steps are as follows:

Continue to gather feedback from community members on the plan. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please complete a google forms online to provide your feedback. https://forms.gle/6aPH65zRTzP3YF9P8
Continue to work with the City of Edmonton to complete the required business case and planning documents.
Create a funding plan that looks at available grants and calculates what needs to be raised from community donations
Initiate more detailed construction plans and budgets.

The community league has $300k in the bank and is currently running a small operating deficit for 2024. In order for this plan to come to fruition we need to turn the $300k into $3.7M. We will start with grants from the municipal, provincial and federal governments. Beyond these grants it is likely we will need community donations. We have created a registered charity that will be able to provide tax deductible donation receipts to donors but we don’t yet know how much we can raise.

This is a big project that will require additional volunteers to help with fundraising and planning. As it becomes more difficult to find volunteers to run programs, manage the facilities and operate the board does it make sense to spend this amount of money? Will new people in the community cherish the gym, pre-school and hall the same way that existing members do? Are there other ways we could repurpose the space to either generate more income from the building or service the community better? If we build this will we be able to run it? Is this the best plan for the Glenora Community?

Let us know what you think.

Please complete a google forms online https://forms.gle/6aPH65zRTzP3YF9P8

Past Redevelopment of the Community League

What We have done:

Phase 1: Drainage and Hockey Rink/Basketball

Outdoor Hockey Rink
In addition to completely renovating this space, a cement base was included adding functionality for the space in the summer months.
Basketball Courts
Installed six basketball nets around the rink to be used in summer months

Phase 2: Tennis & Pickleball Courts, Fencing Replacement

Tennis Courts
Most of the work to upgrade the tennis courts area included structural work (i.e. excavation and backfill). Other elements completed include:
Repaired the surface and fence
Replaced the poles, nets and lights
Pickleball Courts created

Phase 3: Community Garden (Glenora Gardens) and Fitness Area

Completed in August 2023

What We have planned:

Phase 4: Renovation of Glenora Community League Building

Goal for Completion - TBD