Open site to all bidders: mayor

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This article was published 21/01/2015 (3945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Mayor Brian Bowman is demanding CentreVenture open up the former Carlton Inn site to all would-be developers — even if the arm’s-length city agency already has a deal in place with True North Sports & Entertainment.

Winnipeg’s mayor vowed Tuesday to amend a deal that would free up Stuart Olson from an obligation to build a hotel to serve an expanded RBC Convention Centre as long as the construction company pays a $3.75-million penalty.

That cash will be used to help reduce the City of Winnipeg line of credit CentreVenture used to buy the former Carlton Inn, which cost the agency $6.6 million.

Bowman wants CentreVenture to issue a public request for proposals (RFP) to develop the Carlton Inn site — even though the agency signed an option on the land in 2014 with a “credible developer” believed to be True North.

“I’d like to have all the information in the public realm as soon as possible,” said Bowman, pledging to amend the deal to ensure CentreVenture issues an RFP for the Carlton Inn site.

The agency is facing accusations it stymied private efforts to develop 220 Carlton St.

CentreVenture acquired the property in 2012 for a new hotel to serve the convention centre, whose $180-million expansion plan relies on the availability of more rooms.

Multiple sources asserted on Monday CentreVenture sent a cease-and-desist letter in November to real estate firm Colliers International, which was working on behalf of Stuart Olson to bring a hotel to the table.

On Tuesday, Ken Reiss, owner of the Garry Street Parkade, said CentreVenture failed to aid a joint venture between Reiss Development Inc. and Stuart Olson to build a mixed-use residential, hotel and office complex at the Carlton Inn site.

The partnership was shortlisted by consulting firm Deloitte as the potential home for a new Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries head office, said Reiss, presenting emails suggesting former CentreVenture president and CEO Ross McGowan at first ignored the joint venture’s overture and then declined to authorize access to the Carlton Inn site.

Evan Johnston, Stuart Olson’s Calgary-based vice-president and general counsel, declined to comment. McGowan could not be reached for comment.

CentreVenture’s board of directors denied it scuttled any efforts to develop the Carlton Inn site, claiming Stuart Olson asked to be released from its hotel-building obligation in April 2014 and soon tabled a settlement agreement.

“It was incumbent upon CentreVenture to pursue an alternative development for the site,” CentreVenture’s board said in a statement. “The City of Winnipeg was aware of our efforts in this regard, and it was deemed to be the most responsible course of action.”

Convention centre board president Bob Silver, however, said Stuart Olson was advised to keep working on a hotel and was not released from that obligation until last week, when the board voted in favour of a settlement that requires city council approval.

Silver is a co-owner of the Winnipeg Free Press.

This morning, the executive policy committee is expected to grill Angela Mathieson, CentreVenture’s new president and CEO. Bowman said the public must learn the details of any deal in place.

“I want to make sure that if money’s going to flow out of here, that we have an RFP, so Winnipeggers can be assured that whomever the developer may be, they’re treated fairly and all developers are treated fairly,” the mayor said.

Bowman received a 2014 mayoral-race endorsement from Mark Chipman, chairman of the company believed to hold the option on the Carlton Inn site. True North is said to have a plan to build a mixed-use development at the site and a hotel across the street at 225 Carlton St., a surface-parking lot owned by Manitoba Public Insurance.

Bowman said legal considerations precluded him from commenting on those plans. He also said he could not comment on Canad Inns Corp.’s role in helping CentreVenture purchase two downtown hotels in 2012 — the Carlton Inn and the St. Regis Hotel.

Canad Inns chief financial officer Dan Lussier said CentreVenture asked the Winnipeg firm to assist the agency “in a complicated transaction” that would have led the city to pay additional federal taxes if the deal didn’t include the hotelier’s assistance.

The transaction involved the partial transfer of the hotels’ ownership to Canad Inns, which owns the nearby Metropolitan Theatre, Tavern United and Radisson Hotel.

“Their legal counsel explained the situation and that there was nothing untoward in the transaction,” Lussier said in a statement.

“We were supportive of CentreVenture’s objectives to work towards a more inviting environment for downtown, in line with the SHED district initiatives and, as such, agreed to help them overcome this tax challenge, on the condition that we would not become financially or legally exposed in any manner.

“We sought no benefit beyond the opportunity to provide our customers a more inviting and vibrant downtown while visiting our properties.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

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