Choices for Youth (CFY) is surveying the marketplace for opportunities to purchase and/or develop a commercial property in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, which will be designed to create opportunities for youth employment through innovative social enterprise initiatives.
In order to scale our social enterprise operations and education/employment programming, CFY is searching for a permanent social enterprise hub and innovation work center. The ideal property will provide significant strategic and operational value to CFY’s social enterprise programs such as Impact Construction, The Shop and Neighbourhood. CFY is seeking to acquire a transformational property to allow CFY social enterprises and programming to scale, and continue meeting the needs of youth through community supports and innovative program offerings. The Property
The ideal property must be designed or able to be transformed into a multi-use space that can accommodate the following:
Workshop space for construction, woodworking, and accompanying storage. This will be also used for small tool training and product creation. This workshop space needs to accommodate large equipment and at least 12 individual spaces for learning and training with small tools and demonstration space (drywall, etc.).
Retail space for our second hand clothing store, Neighbourhood; approximately 2,000 sqft of open and accessible space that is in a viable location, for customers and youth. This space will also need to accommodate the collection, storage and processing a high volume of retail donations.
Production space that can suit small production and light manufacturing, with appropriate storage space and loading bay.
Space to create a commercial kitchen, complete with walk in freezer, that can serve as a production kitchen with storage and dedicated loading capacity.
Multipurpose training rooms, classroom space, meeting spaces and youth space designed for employment and educational services.
Office and Administration space to accommodate a modern work space with amenities
Loading bay and workspace that is large enough to accommodate a vehicle for maintenance, vehicle storage, and equipment storage for Impact Construction.
Office and working space for partner organizations (co-working) in the social enterprise/innovation realm
Property Specifications
Location
Choices for Youth envisions the location of its permanent Social Enterprise Hub to be in proximity to the neighborhoods it serves. This includes, but is not limited to, downtown St. John’s, Center City, and west end (Mundy Pond and vicinity). The property must be located on a bus route.
In addition to the social determinants that influence the location, we are also looking for a property that has retail commercial appeal, with the appropriate storefront capacity to house at least one retail operation.
Square Footage
To accommodate our enterprises, programming, and social enterprise activities, we are looking for a large footprint; within the range of 15,000 - 18,000 sqft.
Parking Capacity
Parking capacity must be able to accommodate staff and customers, at least 20 individual parking spaces. We also require parking for our fleet of vehicles for Impact Construction, up to six spaces for fleet parking.
Environmental
An environmental assessment will be required and our expectation is that the property be free of asbestos, mold, and soil contaminants. This assessment must be comprehensive and completed by a reputable environmental assessment company.
Loading Bays
The space must have at least three loading bays or the space to install loading bays
Accessibility and Building Entry Points
Given the multi-use nature of this property, we envision this property to have multiple entry points. These entry points will be for customers (retail), youth, and staff/partners workspaces. We also committed to promoting accessibility and creating inclusive spaces. The property must offer the capacity to be accessible. The building can be over two floors, however, it must be accessible, or with adjustments, could be accessible.
Zoning
The property must be zoned by the City of John’s as commercial, or mixed commercial.
Proposals
Responses to this proposal should include the following:
Letter of Intent
Property specs, confirmation of zoning, and environment reports
Price
Property survey and floorplan
Timeline – property availability and a proposed timeline
Email proposals to cmacneil@choicesforyouth.ca Proposals must be received on or before Monday, November 23rd, 2020 @ 5:00pm