The Whistler Gymnastics Club's tenure at their new facility in the High Performance Centre at Cheakamus Crossing may be short-lived, unless they can get some assurances from the Whistler 2010 Sports Legacies Society and the Resort Municipality of Whistler that their costs won't increase beyond what has been negotiated for the past nine months.
They would also like more transparency.
A letter from the gymnastics club was received at the Sept. 21 council meeting. The letter asks the municipality to review the situation, going back six years to when the club and municipality initially discussed building space in the High Performance Centre - adding onto a building that was already part of Whistler's Olympic commitments.
The municipality agreed to spend $2 million to build a full-time gymnastics centre on the site, a legacy that was then leveraged to raise funding for the building from governments and Olympic sponsors.
Despite that funding and the promised legacy, the club now faces a situation where they are paying more than three times as much for the new facility as for space at Spring Creek Community School - with no guarantees that their costs won't increase in the future.
"The base amount we were okay starting with has increased hugely," explained Sandi Wentzel, who was hired by Whistler Gymnastics to manage their transition into what's now being called the Oros Whistler Gymnastics Centre.
The gymnastics club is still without a contract to operate in the facility. In the meantime, with the clock ticking on the 2010-2011 season, they have spent over $230,000 on new equipment for the facility, including a $210,000 grant from the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation - much of it committed before they knew what their true operating costs would be.
Back in November 2009 the legacy society presented a contract to the gymnastics club for $51,995 per year. The building, paid for by the municipality, would be rent-free as agreed, but the club would be asked to pay triple net fees of $8 per square foot to cover the cost of insurance, utilities, security, snow clearing, landscaping, the district heating system and other operational costs associated with the building.
In December 2009, the Whistler Gymnastics Club asked for a breakdown of those cost estimates. They have yet to receive that information.
In the meantime it did not escape the club's notice that the amount they were being charged was almost identical - within $400 - to the amount they presented to council five years earlier when the legacy was first being discussed. That estimate, said Wentzel, was based on being in a new facility for five years, with adequate time to develop more programming and partnerships with other sporting groups in the community.
The club has decided to move forward, even though the $51,955 rate is almost two-and-a-half times the $21,000 that the club previously paid for gym space at Spring Creek. At the time they were confident they could make up the difference by adding programs and raising more money.
According to Wentzel, parents and volunteers are already on the hook to fundraise about $20,000 per year for the facility, about four times the club's usual fundraising target. What's more, the club has applied for numerous grants to help cover costs, although that's something the club can't rely on for the long term. They have received $25,000 over the next two years from Rona, an Olympic sponsor that contributed to the High Performance Centre, and a community enrichment grant from the municipality. Their provincial gaming grant was denied.
The challenge of funding the club would only get larger as time went on. Back in April the gymnastics club was informed that the $51,995 quote did not include their share - 34 per cent, based on square footage - of common area costs. That increased the gym club's annual costs to $55,758.
Once again the gym club asked for a breakdown of operating costs, but have yet to see anything. At that time the gym club asked the sports legacies society whether the Harmonized Sales Tax was included in that new figure, and were informed that it was not. Revised costs increased the gym club's bill to $62,449.
Last week the club was informed that the legacy society would not provide any custodial services unless they paid extra, something the club had previously believed was included in the triple net cost. Whistler Gymnastics now has to clean its own washrooms and change rooms, or hire someone do it - something they have not yet priced but believe could raise their annual costs closer to $70,000 per year.
That may be only the beginning, said Wentzel. The legacies society could not commit to freezing the gym club's commitment at $8 per square foot for more than two years, and has told the club that any additional operating costs for the building would be charged to the club. However, if the costs are lower - and the legacies society will be audited annually as part of its constitution - the savings would be passed on to Whistler Gymnastics.
Looming over everything is the issue of property taxes and fees. The gym club believes that could ultimately add more than $10,000 to their annual facility costs, which would then price the building completely out of reach for the club. Currently, Whistler Gymnastics' rates are competitive with clubs in Vancouver, both private and non-profit, and the board of the club is not willing to raise rates each year by more than a small percentage.
The building was given a tax-exemption from 2009 to 2013, consistent with other non-profits. Past 2013 there are no guarantees, said Wentzel.
"We can't afford that," said Wentzel of the prospect of paying $80,000 or more. "We need guarantees from the RMOW... that we would never be responsible for property taxes on this building.
"We would never run this club into the ground just to stay here," she added. "If we couldn't afford it we would move back, hopefully, to Spring Creek and find a way to keep operating. This club has been around for a long time and our first priority is to make sure it's still around for years to come."
The gymnastics facility was built with $2 million in funding from the Resort Municipality of Whistler as well as other donated materials and costs. The facility and land are currently owned by the RMOW but can be transferred over at any time to the sports legacies society as per the existing agreement. To avoid the costs of transferring the property, the legacies society is seeking a lease from the municipality to manage the High Performance Centre and athlete housing in the neighbourhood.
The gym club has made suggestions that would lower their costs, but with no progress. For example, they have been informed that part of their costs would go towards a security front desk position, something the club doesn't need. The gym club offered to help staff the desk themselves to defray that cost, but they were denied.
They also requested a position on the legacies society board in order to have a say over how the High Performance Centre is operated. That was also denied.
The centre currently houses Whistler Gymnastics, the Canadian Sports Centre-Pacific, the Whistler Adaptive Sports Program offices and the offices of the legacies society. The Soul Funktion dance studio had booked space in the upstairs multi-purpose room but that organization has ceased operations.
Pique contacted other tenants of the centre to find out if they were having similar issues over financial uncertainty, but did not receive any reply at press time.
At the Sept. 21 council meeting, council members referred the matter to staff but said they didn't know what they could do.
Keith Bennett, the president of sports legacies society, and vice-president of corporate services Diane Mombourquette, said they would not comment on a letter that was addressed to council, but were available to answer questions about the facility.
Mombourquette emphasized that the exact operating costs would not be known until the facility has been in operation for at least year, She said the estimates given to Whistler Gymnastics are on the conservative side.
"The (original) numbers they were given were based on estimates for operating the building, essentially before the building was finished and definitely before it was operating," she said.
"We won't know those costs until we've been operating the building. We've been telling them that estimated costs are 'x' but their rates will be determined by actual costs - which aren't known until the year is over."
Bennett stressed that the club is not paying rent, but only their share of the operating costs. In comparison, other tenants in the building are paying rent as well as triple net costs. Many of those costs, he added, are still unknown.
"I don't know if there is a cheaper way of buying hydro or district energy from the municipality, which is what they're paying for. (Whistler Gymnastics) are not paying our costs, but some costs associated with cleaning the front area (and maintaining the building). A lot of that is done by contract, which is the cheapest way you can do it."
For example, Bennett says they didn't know what the district heating system would cost on an annual basis until a week ago, which is part of the reason they haven't been able to share exact operating costs with the club.
"It has been a while trying to work our way through this thing, and we're still dealing with a number of unknowns when moving towards understanding what these things cost," said Bennett.
"We've owned some pretty significant facilities for all of 15 weeks now. We've been focused on business plans, operating plans, transferring ownership of properties and everything over, and it has been a pretty big challenge."
Bennett says the legacies society was always intended to run the building, even if that information was not included in earlier municipal five-year plans and was news to the club. Their involvement in the High Performance Centre predates the municipality's contribution, he said.
As for the club's request to have a position on the board, Bennett said it wouldn't make sense considering that the board manages Olympic legacy venues like the Whistler Sliding Centre, Whistler Olympic Park and the athlete housing, as well as the High Performance Centre. The gym club is only a small part of the operation, he said.
The board itself is appointed by nominating members, including the municipality, Canadian Olympic Committee, Canadian Paralympic Committee and host First Nations. Most of legacies society's funding comes from the Games Operating Trust, a $130 million endowment that divides its revenues and interest between the Olympic venue in Richmond and Whistler's Olympic facilities. That money is not allocated to cover costs at the High Performance Centre or athletes housing.
Full disclosure: The reporter is married to a Whistler Gymnastics Coach, and his daughter is currently enrolled in their preschool programs.
