City council has given Surrey RCMP the green light to spend $517,000 to furnish its expansion into the old city hall.
Through a contract with the City of Surrey, Heritage Office Furnishings Ltd. will manufacture, deliver and install the office furniture.
The funding is available within the project’s budget, according to a city report.
The RCMP will make use of portions of the old city hall at 14245 56th Ave. - roughly 57,000 square feet in the south tower and about 21,000 square feet in the west tower.
It’s said use of the former civic site offers financial savings to the city by offsetting the capital cost that would have been required to build or lease other facilities. In 2013, $36 million was identified in the city’s capital plan to construct a new North Surrey building as part of a long-term strategy for the detachment.
Leasing of the old hall is expected to pay down the $99.5 million bill for the new civic site. By police moving into the space, the city effectively saves the $36 million planned for the new site, bringing the cost of the new city hall down to roughly $63.5 million.
Surrey RCMP will join the provincial government in utilizing the site.
It was announced in 2014 that Crown counsel and community corrections would be leasing 45,000 square feet of the building at a rate of $565,000 a year for the first five years. That revenue – roughly $2.8 million – will further bring down the cost of the new city hall to approximately $60 million, according to the city.