CANMORE – A familiar face will be joining the Town of Canmore staff at the former downtown fire hall.
Roam transit will take over two bays and add office space for its growing operations after Canmore council approved its use during its Jan. 9 meeting.
The transit service will join the municipality’s protective services, which will occupy the majority of the building, as well as space for facilities and public works staff.
“We’ve been talking about that as a potential base for a couple of years ever since we found out the new fire station was being built,” said Roam CEO Martin Bean. “With protective services taking over a majority of the building – but having two bays open – it seemed like a good fit for Roam to park two of the smaller buses inside.
“As the fleet grows in Canmore, we’re going to need more inside parking. We see the fire hall as a temporary solution for a number of years until we can finalize plans for some new infrastructure.”
Bean said Roam’s local buses for Canmore routes come in at 30-feet and can fit into the bays, while three bays will continue to be at the Town’s Boulder Crescent facility. Once the transition is finished, Roam will be able to store five buses inside facilities in Canmore.
In the coming months, Roam will launch the new Grassi Lakes route that will add local options and connect Grassi Lakes, the Canmore Nordic Centre and Quarry Lake to the rest of the community.
With the Proterra electric bus unlikely to be delivered this summer due to the company’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, Bean said the transit authority will have another bus available for the route.
But with the soon-to-be newest route bringing Roam to 12 active options and its fleet at 31 buses, the need to have more space for both buses and staff in Canmore was vital.
Roam’s operations facility in Banff’s industrial compound and its administration offices in downtown Banff had hit its limit, but it also gives Roam more of a presence in Canmore, Bean said.
“We’ve outgrown our office space in Banff and we’ve been looking at alternatives,” he said. “We have approval from our board to search out additional office space and the fire hall will provide us a couple offices that will be able to house five or six desks.”
Bean said Roam is working with Town staff on a move-in date, with some building upgrades needed, but the move will take place before summer.
Council approved re-purposing the former fire hall for municipal office space at its August meeting.
At the August meeting, Town staff emphasized the spacing crunch being felt by municipal departments, with the limited availability of land and high costs being a barrier to finding additional office space.
A facility use decision framework was created by Town staff as part of the facility use evaluation project from the 2022 capital budget to allow municipal departments to submit requests for space. When space requests are proposed, the framework allows for an internal review process to take place that looks at cost analysis, business case, an evaluation process and a potential space use agreement.
In 2021, the previous council discussed potential other options and directed Town staff to look at both the sale and lease of the fire hall. A public engagement process didn’t take place for future use of the former fire hall, but Town staff said they had heard from community groups of potential interest in using available space.
Stephen Hanus, the Town’s manager of facilities, told council the fire hall had about 21 per cent unused space and put out an expression of interest in November. Roam was the lone organization to submit an application, but Hanus said using the framework of the transit service was a good use of space.
“Although we only had one submission, it ranked very well. It scored very well because it’s a great use of the space,” he said.
“They’re providing important transportation services in the community and the Bow Valley overall.”
A Town staff report added few improvements to the space would be needed and were largely focused on lighting, painting and window coverings that would be funded by the transit commission.
According to the report, the base rent is valued at $57,000 a year, but use of shared spaces such as kitchen, training room and washrooms would increase it to $64,000. Additional costs such as electricity, natural gas and insurance are valued at about $21,000 for a total of $85,500.
However, the transit commission’s bylaws would have the Town responsible for rent costs associated with Canmore local routes, leaving the municipal portion at roughly $59,500. The transit commission’s partners in Banff and I.D. No. 9 will share $26,000.
Hanus told council having more Roam resources in the community will also provide some operational cost savings.
At the August meeting, Town staff told council the remaining space would likely be year-to-year since the needs of the Town evolve and it would have to adapt to meet future needs.
The fire hall is 8,514-square-feet in size and was built in 1986. Following a fire, the office space was rebuilt in 2015.
The 2022 capital budget noted when a market assessment of the fire hall was done in 2019, it was estimated it could be sold for between $3.425 million and $4.834 million.
Bean said Roam and the Town are reviewing a recently completed study that looks at potential expansion of Canmore’s Roam transit, which will be presented to the transit commission this year.
However, as both Banff and Canmore councils have prioritized the growth of Roam, necessary infrastructure to follow suit will be needed such as a potential long-term Roam space in Canmore.
“It’s on the horizon. We had a study completed for Canmore transit expansion and we’re working through the results of the study with the Town of Canmore to plan the long-term transit expansion,” Bean said. “Along with that expansion will come the need for more facilities.”
Coun. Joanna McCallum, a long-term transit commission member and former chair, highlighted that as transit grows so too will infrastructure needs for staff and buses.
“If we want transit to grow in Canmore, we need to make space for it to grow in and the old fire hall is a prime opportunity and prime location for that to occur,” she said.
