Pressure mounts on Bowman to apologize

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This article was published 05/02/2015 (3925 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pressure is mounting on Mayor Brian Bowman to make amends with businessman Mark Chipman and the CentreVenture board of directors.

Dave Angus, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday Bowman has to apologize — either privately or publicly — to Chipman and the CentreVenture board and make clear to the public that nothing improper took place in CentreVenture’s deal with Chipman.

“The form of that apology is up to the mayor,” Angus said. “Whether he reaches out himself, whether he does it publicly, whether he does it in a way that recognizes that there were mistakes… There needs to be something said that re-establishes the fact that these people are honest, honourable people — because to me that’s been the most egregious part of this process.”

Angus added that council must reverse its decision of last month and allow the True North project to proceed.

Angus’ comments came a day after Chipman, executive chairman of True North Sports and Entertainment, said Bowman had misled the public over what he had known about the proposed $400-million downtown True North development.

Ironically, both Chipman and Angus had publicly supported Bowman during the recent civic election campaign.

Council adopted a motion at its Jan. 28 meeting that tied a transfer of $3.75 million the convention centre will receive from construction firm Stuart Olson to flow to CentreVenture only after CentreVenture conducts a public search for any interested developers.

Bowman, a former chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, is in Toronto for the Big City Mayors’ Summit and not immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the CentreVenture board said it won’t act on a direction from council to see if other developers are interested in the 220 Carlton property until Chipman and True North decided what they want to do.

Curt Vossen said CentreVenture has a legally binding agreement with True North for the 220 Carlton St. property and the next step belongs to True North.

Vossen said True North’s option gives the firm until Feb. 15 to finalize a development agreement and agree on a purchase price for the property. The option expires in June.

“My recommendation to (the CentreVenture) board would be to not do anything until we’ve had that discussion between now and the 15th of February with True North,” Vossen said.

Vossen said CentreVenture needs the $3.75 million to make up the difference in its investment in the Carlton Street property, which he estimated at about $7 million, and the sale of the land to True North, which Vossen said will be anywhere from $4 million to $5 million.

Coun. John Orlikow, chairman of the property, planning and development committee, said Angus should come to council to make his case that it rescind its motion for a public search, adding the $3.75 will not flow to CentreVenture until that happens.

Orlikow said CentreVenture can proceed with its deal with True North but it will not get the $3.75 million without opening the process up to other developers.

Bowman and members of council have been strongly critical of CentreVenture’s handling of the 220 Carlton Street property, where an exclusive option was given to True North to include it in its massive True North Square project.

Chipman had been a member of the CentreVenture board when problems arose with the 220 Carlton property in April 2014. In May, True North told the CentreVenture board its proposed — on a site across the street at 225 Carlton — could be expanded to 220 Carlton and solve the problem.

Chipman remained on the CentreVenture board for two more months while the deal was being worked on, although he said he recused himself from any of the discussions, and eventually resigned from the CentreVenture board in July 2014.

A final agreement between CentreVenture and True North was signed in September 2014, but backdated to June 2014.

Bowman had condemned CentreVenture’s process as secretive and likened it to the real-estate scandals that have dogged city hall for the last three years.

Bowman said that CentreVenture should have conducted a formal, public search for a developer for 220 Carlton, which is what council ordered CentreVenture to do at its Jan. 28 meeting — even though True North has a legally binding exclusive option on the property, which doesn’t expire until June 2015.

Chipman said he and his company have been wrongly tarnished and he said he was putting the project on hold — a moot point since city council told CentreVenture to see if there are other developers interested in the property.

Angus said he doesn’t believe there was anything improper in how CentreVenture reached its deal with True North or that Chipman was given a special advantage because of his membership on the CentreVenture board.

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“This is a debacle that needs to be fixed,” Angus said, adding Bowman’s condemnation of the process that led to the deal with True North runs the risk of scaring investment away from Winnipeg.

“That’s just not the way we do things,” Angus said. “This is going the wrong way and this isn’t the way we do things in Winnipeg,” Angus said. “We don’t do things through division, we collaborate.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca