Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Hydro line alters plan for core highrise
Sale price of land on Assiniboine will be reduced, design changed
The property on Assiniboine Avenue that will be the future home of an apartment building, to be at a reduced land price. (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
A plot of riverfront land has proven to be a little too electrifying for the developer hoping to build downtown Winnipeg's first highrise apartment tower in more than 20 years.
Rubin Spletzer, who was convinced to walk away from a deal to build apartments next to Upper Fort Garry in 2008, has discovered a 66-kilovolt hydro line running straight through the Assiniboine Avenue property he purchased this year in a second attempt to build a downtown highrise tower.
On Monday, city council's downtown development committee will meet behind closed doors to amend the sale of city-owned land to Spletzer's Heritage Landing Inc., which purchased the property east of Donald Street for $1.8 million.
According to city documents, the sale price will be reduced by $200,000 to $1.6 million to offset legal, accounting, architectural, engineering and other costs Spletzer incurred as the result of the discovery of the live hydro line, which runs through the riverside property and then below the Assiniboine River.
"The existence of the hydro line was unknown at the time of sale, as no caveat appears on the property," city real estate officials write in a report. "The hydro distribution line was installed by the former Winnipeg Hydro and therefore a caveat against the title would not be permitted by the Land Titles Office."
The city sold Winnipeg Hydro to Manitoba Hydro in 2002.
The real estate officials go on to say Spletzer's company would not have offered to buy the land "had it known the property contained a major hydro distribution line." But Heritage Landing still intends to proceed with its plan to build an apartment building, albeit with a brand-new design.
"The purchaser... is committed to downtown housing development and has altered its project to accommodate the existence of the hydro distribution line within the property," city officials write.
The city has also agreed to spend $400,000 to shore up the line within the property. The cost of moving the line is estimated at $2.5 million to $3 million, according to the report.
Spletzer could not be reached for comment, and city officials are not permitted to speak about the deal before it is concluded. But the discovery of the hydro line is only the latest setback in Spletzer's quest to build an apartment tower in downtown Winnipeg.
In 2007, the city agreed to sell Spletzer's Crystal Developers surplus land at the southwest corner of Fort Street and Assiniboine Avenue, choosing the apartment tower plan over an even taller highrise and a proposed heritage park at the site of Upper Fort Garry, the city's birthplace.
But an intense lobbying effort by the Friends of Upper Fort Garry convinced Spletzer to abandon the deal in early 2008. Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said he did not offer Spletzer anything to back away from the deal, as the riverfront land on Assiniboine Avenue land was not declared surplus until November of that year.
Along with a live hydro line, the land in question includes the former home of Winnipeg's Board of Revision, along with an accessory building, a surface parking lot and a ribbon of green space.
In June, Spletzer hoped to build an apartment tower up to 25 storeys high, with as many as 180 units. The city has a shortage of rental units, as residential apartment vacancy hovers around one per cent.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 21, 2009 A4
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