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Former warehouse to house city transit buses

Even though city CAO Doug Nadorozny said the city isn’t happy about the job losses caused by the closure of the National Grocers warehouse earlier this year, some good has come of it. The city just closed a $4.
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National Grocers will be closing the third week of April. More than 100 union members are affected as well as staff and management positions. Photo by Bill Bradley.
Even though city CAO Doug Nadorozny said the city isn’t happy about the job losses caused by the closure of the National Grocers warehouse earlier this year, some good has come of it. The city just closed a $4.9 million deal that makes them the new owner of the vacant space as of Dec. 15.

“This is a good, solid building and a judicious investment of our municipal tax dollars,” Nadorozny stated in a press release.

The space will be used to house Greater Sudbury Transit buses and the city’s vehicle fleet.

“The city has replaced an obsolete transit garage at less than half the cost of building a new facility and there is room enough for expansion of transit and fleet services in the forseeable future,” Nadorozny said.

The city’s transit and fleet vehicles are currently housed and serviced at a garage on Frobisher Street. The building, built in 1971, was deemed too small to meet the needs of a growing fleet in a report in 2008.

As the building was so old, it was also uneconomical to renovate. After engineering, construction and environmental concerns and conditions were satisfied, city council directed staff to purchase the building.

Tenders for building renovation will be awarded in spring 2011, with the intent of having construction complete and the fleet moved in during summer 2012. “While we are not happy about the job losses resulting from the closure of the distribution centre, we can at least say some good has come from the vacancy,” Nadorozny said.

Greater Sudbury Transit operates a fleet of 60 buses, while the city’s fleet of vehicles numbers around 900. With the expanded garage facilities, the city will be able to maintain and service more of their vehicles in-house, saving the city money.

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