Proposed water-park subsidies probed
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/04/2012 (5015 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
MAYOR Sam Katz and city councillors will meet behind closed doors today to learn more about the latest plan to use public funds to subsidize the construction of a private water park.
Since 2008, the city has been trying to offer $7 million to a private-sector partner willing to build a water park and ensure it will be accessible to the general public. The grant was initially awarded to the Canad Inns hotel chain but withdrawn in 2009 when no progress was made on a water park at the Canad Inns Polo Park property.
A subsequent search for a new private partner led to an offer to build a luxury hotel and water park at Parcel Four, a plot of city-owned land at the southwest corner of William Stephenson Way and Waterfront Drive. During a closed-door seminar, councillors were told the hotel developer was willing to purchase Parcel Four for $7.7 million.
The city has not disclosed any other offers to develop the highly desirable plot of land, which sits south of Shaw Park, west of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and northwest of The Forks. The plot is currently a gravel lot best known as the source of a rent dispute between the city and Riverside Park Management, which used to lease the land and sublet it to the Katz-owned Winnipeg Goldeyes baseball club.
The latest proposal for a hotel and water park at the site would see Alberta hotel chain Canalta and a private-sector Winnipeg partner, city hall sources have confirmed. It’s unknown how many members of council will support the $7-million grant, which comes from a $43-million pool of cash set aside for recreation projects in 2005.
“This is an important project for the mayor and he wants to see it through,” said Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt, who is more excited about a city plan to build a completely public aquatic facility in his ward.
Council’s property and development committee approved the transfer of $800,000 from the city’s land operating reserve on Tuesday to help design and build a $5-million outdoor pool, wading pool and splash-pad complex on the site of an existing 51-year-old pool in Transcona.
Proceeds from the sale of a wooded parcel of city-owned land near Rothshire Drive will top up the reserve, according to a planning department report.
bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca