Reggie’s Renovations Awaiting Final Signatures

Concordia’s Long-time Defunct Student Bar Will be Open Early in the Fall Semester

NewsJonathan Caragay-Cook — Published May 18, 2015

Closed since October 2013, the renovations for the space on the Hall-building’s Mezzanine level await their final signatures, according to Katherine Soad Bellini, the CSU VP Clubs and Internal Affairs.

Council decided to partner with construction firm Doverco at a cost of $1.4 million after deliberations at a special closed council session on May 4.

Besides having the lowest bid, Doverco had recommendations from all of their consultants, according to CSU President Benjamin Prunty. After going into a tender process, Soad Bellini says that they reached out to seven different firms to gauge interest and costs, and received four formal responses. The next lowest bid was $1.6 million.

Due to the proximity of the spaces, the Hive Café will also undergo renovations. However, it will open before Reggie’s, in August, because it already has a governance plan in place. The next executive will work on a business plan for the bar over the summer months, continued Soad Bellini.

Having overseen the project for the vast majority of her mandate, the VP Clubs and Internal Affairs acknowledges that the renovations are costly but will bring “life” to the community.

“The goal of the space is to be desirable for the next ten years,” she said.

“The goal of the space is to be desirable for the next ten years,” said Katherine Soad Bellini, the CSU VP Clubs and Internal Affairs.

New furniture is currently being purchased for the space which will have a kitchen, dance area and permits to screen documentaries and host meetings.

An honorarium of approximately $70,000 for the engineers was discussed at last council, and Soad Bellini says it was approved at the beginning of the winter semester.

Reggie’s is only one of multiple projects the outgoing CSU executive worked on this year. Recently, council approved approximately $100,000 to help the Concordia Food Coalition purchase Burritoville, a restaurant located on Bishop St., and transform it into a student cooperative.

Despite wanting to have a culture of allowing students to make important decisions through referendum questions during elections and by-elections, Prunty says that they did not need approval from the student body for the money allocation.

In response to whether it would have gone to referendum if the timing coincided with the last general election, he says they may have but never thought about the possibility.

“For $100,000, we thought it was okay to make a decision,” Prunty said.

Executive Honorarium and Bonuses

At its last meeting on Wednesday, council went into closed session to debate how much honorarium and bonuses each executive team member deserves. Due to the sensitive nature of discussing a peer’s job performance, the full executive team left the room.

A request by The Link to view the amounts awarded has not been met by press time. At its own council session on Thursday, the Arts and Science Federation of Associations council chose to remain in open session to discuss the honorarium and bonuses of its executives.

Update: The leaving executive team each received the same bonus of 9.6 per cent from their base honorarium of $26010, Prunty told The Link. Every member earned in honorarium and bonus, a total of $28506 for the year.