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No ties to Shindico, Katz says

Real-estate firm involved in numerous transactions

By: Bartley Kives

26/11/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 52

Mayor Sam Katz

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Mayor Sam Katz

On a day when city council approved three separate deals involving real-estate company Shindico, Mayor Sam Katz was asked about the nature of his relationship with the Winnipeg company.

On Wednesday, council approved a $24-million parkade sale brokered by Shindico, a $30-million police-building purchase vetted by Shindico and a $9-million library-lease extension in a Shindico-managed mall. During a break in the proceedings, the mayor said the city does a lot of business with Shindico because the company does its job extremely well and said he has no special connection to the firm.

"My relationship with Shindico is no different than my relationship with any other real-estate company in the City of Winnipeg. They are out there doing a job, end of story," the mayor told reporters outside his office.

"Maybe someone should be extolling the virtues of someone who's getting things done in our city. Maybe someone should look at who's developing property and broadening our tax base. Maybe you should look at the big picture."

According to city officials, Shindico ranks No. 1 on a list of five commercial realtors qualified to handle large transactions on behalf of the city of Winnipeg, whose own real-estate staff does not have the capacity to handle large, unusual deals.

The list was compiled on the basis of objective criteria such as fee schedules and commission rates to ensure all decisions about realtors can be defended if they're ever challenged, said Deepak Joshi, Winnipeg's director of planning, property and development.

"Whoever provides the best deal for the city is the way we choose them," he said.

Shindico outperforms national firms when it comes to certain types of transactions, Joshi said. The company conducted the due diligence on Winnipeg's acquisition of the Canada Post building on Graham Avenue because it was best qualified to assess the 10-storey structure's suitability for the Winnipeg Police Service, he said.

Shindico is in line to receive a $400,000 commission on the $24-million Winnipeg Square Parkade sale because the company brought the highest bidder to the table, Toronto's Crown Realty Partners, he added.

But Shindico was not selected to handle the city's $3.4-million acquisition of the Midtown Car Wash as part of a rapid-transit-corridor expropriation, Joshi said. That job went to rival realtor Cushman Wakefield Lepage.

The presence of the Canada Post and Winnipeg Square Parkade deals on the same council agenda as a Henderson Library lease extension in a Shindico-managed mall merely illustrates how active the company is, Katz added.

But the mayor does have a connection to company officials. Shindico executives Robert and Sandy Shindleman sat on the board of Riverside Park Management, the non-profit organization that sublets city land to the Katz-owned Winnipeg Goldeyes -- and used to list Katz as president. That relationship has nothing to do with Shindico's deals with the city, said Katz, dismissing any supposed connection as "a ridiculous observation" -- especially since the company listed city properties when Glen Murray was mayor.

"They had that listing because they gave the best service and the best price," Katz said.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 26, 2009 B1

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52 Commentscomment icon

Scam's faith in the private sector is born solely of his interest in moving public money in that direction.

His job is to persuade the people with misinformation about the benefits.

Benefits that obviously can never and will never manifest because we are dealing with the greed of wealthy men.

Wake up people.

Does Katz, Shindleman & Sheegl have some other connection...outside of work perhaps?

@ Not negative - Successful CEO? Are you referring to Sam Katz? If so why don't you ask the creditors of Lemaxx Bedding.

That’s a tangled web you’re weaving, Your Honour.

Does anybody really believe Katz cares about reelection? He’s just going to keep feathering his nest ‘til the clock runs out.

There is a controversy here and it is not just to do with just Katz it is to do with all our mayors. Why are our mayors consistently in the pocket of big business? From Bill Norrie, to Susan Thompson, to Glen Murray, to Sam Katz, all of these mayors have sold services and buildings to private business for less then the market rate and have consistently cut back in the public service.

The reason the real estate department of the city can't do the parkade transaction is because of hiring freezes, cutbacks and retirements, they have no more staff. It costs much less to staff them and get them to do the transaction, then paying Shindico $400,000 for one transaction.

There are other Shindico related transactions. The Board of Revisions of the city was moved from a city owned building downtown to a Shindico owned building on Pembina Hwy all because the Assessment Department was asked by the Shindlemans. Also, with the library there is a city-owned building nearby that the library could move into but they remain in a Shindico owned building paying a 9 million dollar lease extension.

This private sector love-in by our mayors needs to stop and we can provide services internally in the city for a way cheaper cost. For example, after privatizing garbage pickup the price tag went up by 1 million dollars and goes up in cost every year. I thought the private sector could do it cheaper...I guess not.

Like the article says, Shindico was getting city business even when Glen Murray was mayor. And Cushman is getting city business too. There's no story here. It's a drive by smear, conveniently available only because we have a mayor who knows a lot of people in this town and has done business with them in the past. If you want a mayor who has no real connection to the city, elect someone who grew up somewhere else and will leave as soon as his term is up. Oh, sorry - I just described Glen Murray.

The answer is quite simple,if you don't believe Mr.Katz is playing fair,don't vote for him or councilors that continually support him.This town needs term limits anyway.

Based on the comments here, it seems that regardless of who the real estate brokerage firm was, the same people would be angry about $400,000 in commission. Honestly, if it was Cushman or Colliers or any other firm, all of the anti-Katz posters would say the same things: 'there is a connection between Katz and the broker', 'that brokerage firm made donations to the mayor', etc. etc. The fact is EVERY brokerage firm in this city has donated to Sam Katz' mayoral campaigns and every one of them has tried to get business from the city. What is Katz supposed to do? Hire an outside firm that has nothing to do with Winnipeg to make the transaction happen? No, the city should do business with local firms. Or how about hire no professional brokerage firm at all? C'mon, I don't believe for a second that the city has anyone qualified or good enough to negotiate a $21Million offering bid up to $24Million. This is a small town, every mayor we have ever had and will ever have either has had or will have connections of some kind to people doing business with the city. It's not the end of the world.

SUN TZU - Perfect. Then your opinion is invalid. You have a relationship with the players involved and can't be trusted to be unbiased. Which explains why you appear clueless.

whats happening with the Dominion Bridge property that shindico listed for the city for $3.2 mil ?

who made money on the city canceling the rapid transit program overnight a couple of years ago -- leading to Rick Borlands immediate resignation -- and then having it reinstated after several of the properties were bought up ?

a lunch time meeting with a councillor can surely put someone in a competitive advantage when it comes time to doing the business

the owners of trizec bldg fortunately purchased the property - otherwised it could have been a real mess --

lets see the full ikea deal and see who is paying for what - i suspect its like the arena where the govt pays enough that the developer is unencumbered ...

what else is actually AND potentially for sale ?

who gets all the wrha developments ?

there use to be tenders advertised for every federal and provincial building requirement -- havent seen one for years ( a few expressions of interests and - we have been employed to find space for .... ) .... time to dust off the code of ethics.

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