Amherstburg council seeking direction for potential new town hall

Amherstburg council will see an administration report at its next meeting, asking for further direction regarding a proposal for a new town hall.

The former General Amherst High School is the location in question.

“[Administration] is advising us to approve in principle and give them the go ahead to start negotiating with the developer,” Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb told AM800, speaking about Valente Development Corporation.

“As it says in the report, there’s a lot of wins in this. There’s a little bit of the façade of the building that is historic, that we’re hoping we can preserve and perhaps integrate into a new town hall.”

Gibb said the reason for the potential move is because the town has simply outgrown its current town hall.

“It provides us the opportunity to bring our staff all into one building and increase the efficiency of the whole operation,” he said.

“It allows us to have a building that’s ADOA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) compliant because currently our town hall was built before accessibility was an issue.”

An exterior view of Amherstburg Town Hall in Amherstburg, Ont. (Rich Garton / CTV Windsor)

The report stated the developer is open to a lease, own or lease-to-own model for the inclusion of the town hall into the redevelopment.

Gibb added council will need to look for the best financial option.

“I think it’s very innovative to look at a lease option or a lease-to-own,” he said.

“If we can avoid issuing debt, this could be something that works for the municipality. If you look, a lot of companies don’t own their buildings, they lease them.”

Valente hopes for a 2025 completion date for all planning approvals, with construction to begin in 2026.

Further discussions will be had at Monday night’s meeting.