After much deliberation, Nature’s Nursery has moved closer to finally landing a facility to expand its wildlife rehabilitation center in a much larger location.
But because of rising construction costs that pushed bids to more than double the original cost estimate, the nonprofit’s facility won’t be a brand new center built on land donated by Courageous Community Services near Whitehouse as initially planned.
Instead, Nature’s Nursery plans to move to an existing building on 7541 Dutch Road in Waterville, a location that will have around eight acres of land to expand its rehabilitative services. The building comes with three acres, and the organization plans to purchase an additional five acres nearby.
The nonprofit is seeking zoning approval and a special-use permit for the area. If approved, the building could be fully occupied by fall or winter of 2022.
The nonprofit announced last November it had struck a 100-year deal that would cost just $100 a year to use 3.6 acres of land that CCS had acquired from Metroparks Toledo and wasn’t using.
But around April, prices for construction materials such as lumber skyrocketed because of shortages related to the coronavirus pandemic. For 1,000 board feet of lumber that typically cost anywhere from $200 to $400, prices jumped to $1,000. New houses that would have typically consumed $10,000 in wood, now ran $40,000 for that material.
So as construction prices catapulted, so too did bids for projects. The organization’s initial bid to construct a new facility at the Whitehouse location came in at around $1.5 million. But with the increase in prices, Nature’s Nursery was now looking at spending $3.8 million, the only bid of four it received that included a firm dollar amount and wasn’t a cost-plus contract.
“Nobody even knew if things were available,” said Steve Wagener, president of the Nature’s Nursery board of directors. “It was not a good time to build.”
The Waterville facility will cost around $1.2 million, Mr. Wagener said, and the building and acreage will be perfect for the organization that is desperate to move into a larger facility to expand its services.
“It’s a beautiful building,” Mr. Wagener said. “You just can’t beat it for what it was going to cost us.”
The difficult decision to not move forward with building on land Nature’s Nursery generously received from CCS also had to do with the timeline of when the move can be completed, given some of the challenges construction costs and labor presented, executive director Allison Schroeder said.
“The building we’re in now, we outgrew 10 years ago,” she said. “We’re taking in almost 4,000 animals in a 1,500-square-foot building, and this building we’re looking at is over 5,000 square feet. Every inch of that will be put to good use.”
“It was definitely very defeating when those numbers started coming in and we just realized that it wasn’t doable,” she said regarding the previous, new-build plan. “It wasn’t the best use of our donors’ dollars. We know that the value of the dollar is just not there right now from a construction standpoint. And we knew we could use those dollars and stretch them so much further in an existing building.”
To donate for animal care or to the capital campaign, visit natures-nursery.org. Checks may be sent to P.O. Box 2395, Whitehouse, OH 43571, and items can be purchased from the organization’s wish list on Amazon to be shipped directly to the center. A general wish list of goods is also available on the website. Call 419-877-0060 to arrange donations.
First Published October 5, 2021, 8:15 p.m.
