Central Frontenac Purchases The Simonett Building - Updated

Jeff Green | May 21, 2025

In a split vote after an in-camera meeting on Tuesday evening (May 13), Central Frontenac Council decided to proceed with an offer to purchase the Simonett Building at 14216 Road 38 in Sharbot Lake. The building is the former home of The Robinson Group.

The building was originally the home of Simonett's garage and car dealership. It has been the headquarters of the Robinson Group of Companies for over 25 years.

The motion before Council was for Council to “direct the municipal solicitor to prepare an offer to purchase the building, ..., on the terms outlined in a letter of intent previously agreed to between the parties, and authorise the mayor and CAO/Clerk to execute same along with any documents reasonably needed to complete the transaction as may be recommended by legal counsel.

Before the vote, Councillor Duncan McGregor asked if Chief Administrative Officer Cathy MacMunn would be reporting back to Council “at our next meeting in June, on how we are going to pay for this?” MacMunn said “absolutely”.

The vote was 5-4, with councilors Klages, Everett, McGregor, Irwin and Mayor Smith supporting it, and councilors Gowdy, Meeks, Smith and Kelsey voting against it.

When contacted a day after the meeting, Mayor Frances Smith said that the  9,000 square foot building will become the new central office for the township.

“It is a great opportunity for us to get ourselves the office space that we need,” she said.

She said the board room at the building is large enough to function as a council chamber, and there will be enough space for all departments to be based there.

She said space issues in the current building make it difficult for the township to operate efficiently. Residents have to meet planning staff in the kitchen, and the mayor does not have an office space at all.

“We were contacted by Kelly (owner of the building Kelly Robinson) to see if we were interested in it before she listed it, and that’s where it started. When we were looking at a renovation of our office during our last term, it was a $2 million project,” she said.

Chief Administrative Officer Cathy MacMunn said that the process began in the winter, and staff spent time in the Simonett building taking measurements and determining if it suits their needs.

“We did our due diligence before starting to negotiate,” MacMunn said.

She added that the building does not require any modifications and the transition to the new space will begin shortly after the purchase is finalised. She anticipates that will happen next month.

While MacMunn did not disclose the purchase price at this time, she said that township staff are proposing to sell the existing Central Frontenac office building on Elizabeth and Robert streets, as well as some other properties that the township owns, in order to cover the cost of the new building.

The properties have all been appraised, MacMunn said.

The Sharbot Lake and Hinchinbrooke Public School sites are not included in the list of properties that will be for sale, the former Harvey barbershop building located across from the current office, is not slated to be sold off either.

“We may need a short-term loan until we can sell off the properties, but we do not expect to take on any new long-term debt for this,” said Mayor Smith.

The current office is also the home of the Sharbot Lake branch of the Kingston Frontenac Public Library (KFPL).

The local township is responsible for branch locations, and the library board provides staffing and materials for all branches within the KFPL system. A branch study that KFPL completed over a decade ago, urged Central Frontenac to provide a larger space for the library, up to 5,000 square feet.

Moving the library to the The Simonett Building is not part of the township's plans, MacMunn said, adding that township staff will be contacting the KFPL to talk about the future space requirements in Sharbot Lake.

There will be some urgency to this because until a new space is found, the sale of the existing office could be delayed, making the short term debt for the new purchase last that much longer.

“Maybe the new owner will be willing to rent us the space for the library,” said Smith. “We'll have to see.”

Councillor Philip Smith voted against the purchase.

“There is nothing wrong with the Simonett building,” he said when contacted by the News, “and I know it well because I worked there for 25 years until the end of April. I just don't think it is the building that the township needs for the future, and I think it was impulsive to jump at it the way we did. We are just starting an Org Review. How do we know what our staff needs are going to be, before conducting that review. And the library situation has not been addressed at all. But I only have one vote.”

Councillor Nicki Gowdy, who also voted against the purchase, said she did not like the process.

“We discussed space issues for the office in the last term of council, but it has not come up in this term. I would have preferred to see a staff report on our space requirements, followed by a process to address them, instead of receiving a proposal to purchase a building with no background. Both South Frontenac and North Frontenac addressed their office needs in a much different way, and ended up with purpose built solutions. I would prefer if we had done that,” she said.

“But the decision has been made now, and I have to support it.”

Details about the purchase, including the final price, the plan to finance it, and the future of the Sharbot Lake branch of the KFPL, are expected at the next Central Frontenac meeting on May 27.

(Editor's note. The story printed on page 3 of last week's edition of the Frontenac News, contained an error. In the story, we referred to a special in-camera meeting of Central Frontenac Council on May 5, as connected to the Simonett building purchase. The May 5 meeting was not related in any way to the purchase of the new office building on Road 38, the News has been informed. It was for an entirely different matter that has not become public at this time.)