City pursues $75-million water-park and hotel for Forks

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This article was published 11/04/2012 (4924 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City council will soon consider a plan to offer a $7-million grant to an Alberta hotel chain interested in building a $75-million 250-room hotel and 50,000-square-foot, stand-alone water park at a chunk of city-owned land known as Parcel Four, near The Forks.

The latest city plan to use public funds to build a private water park will come before council’s downtown and riverbank committee this Friday. On Wednesday afternoon, councillors were briefed about the plan, which calls for Drumheller, Alta.-based hotel chain Canalta to purchase the six-acre Parcel Four from the City of Winnipeg for $6 million. Parcel Four sits at the southwest corner of Waterfront Drive and William Stephenson Way.

Canalta would first build a 125-room hotel and a water park designed by a firm called WaterFun Products, city property director Barry Thorgrimson said. The second phase of the project would see another 125 hotel rooms built, along with a parkade that could be utilized by the hotel, Shaw Park, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and The Forks.

The city has been trying to offer a $7-million grant for a private water park since 2008, when council redirected $9 million set aside for Kildonan Park pool improvements in 2006. Kildonan Park still received $2.8 million in pool improvements, while the city directed a $7-million grant to Winnipeg’s Canad Inns hotel chain, which intended to build a $43-million expansion at its Polo Park property.

That grant was withdrawn in 2009 after no progress was made at Polo Park. The city then issued a new search for a private partner and later in 2009 received a proposal from Winnipeg real-estate firm Shindico, which was acting as an agent for a hotel and water-park proposal, according to a report by city real-estate manager John Zabudney.

The proposal involved a $64-million hotel and water-park proposal. Over the course of negotiations, Canalta and WaterFun entered the picture, Zabudney writes.

Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz said the city’s $7-million grant is to ensure community access to the facility and said he does not consider it a development subsidy.

Under the terms of the deal, the city would receive $700,000 worth of water-park admission credits every year for 25 years. These credits would be delivered to low-income families through social-service organizations, said Clive Wightman, Winnipeg’s community services director.

No formal agreement has been reached with Canalta to ensure this access, Wightman said. Negotiations are pending city council approval, which may happen as soon as April 25.

However, Wightman said the city intends to ensure low-income families receive a set number of free admissions, not discounted admissions, at least 335 days a year.