EPC meeting Monday to decide option on convention centre settlement deal

By: Aldo Santin Posted: 1:47 PM CST Friday, Jan. 23, 2015 Last Modified: 3:51 PM CST Friday, Jan. 23, 2015 | Updates

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/01/2015 (3943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bad or worse.

Those are the two options Mayor Bowman and his executive policy committee will decide on Monday in a request from the downtown convention centre.

Bowman and his EPC set a special meeting for 1 p.m. Monday to consider a formal request from the board of the RBC Convention Centre to cancel the $16-million holdback to contractor Stuart Olson for its inability to attract a hotel operator for the convention centre expansion project.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
CentreVenture acquired the Carlton Inn site in 2012 for a new hotel to serve the convention centre, whose $180-million expansion plan relies on the availability of more rooms. — JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS CentreVenture acquired the Carlton Inn site in 2012 for a new hotel to serve the convention centre, whose $180-million expansion plan relies on the availability of more rooms.

In an unusually frank question-and-answer exchange Wednesday, convention centre chairman Bob Silver told the board it had reached a deal with Stuart Olson for a $3.75-million settlement in exchange for cancelling the $16-million holdback.

Silver said the settlement deal – which he described as the ‘bad’ option – was in recognition that trying to withhold a $16-million payment to Stuart Olson would likely end up in a lengthy and costly legal dispute – which he described as the ‘worse’ option.

Increased property tax revenue from the proposed hotel site, 220 Carlton St., where the former Carlton Inn stood, is to be used to repay a $33-million loan from city hall to the convention centre for its $180-million expansion.

Councillors are concerned that without a hotel on the property, that loan will never be repaid.

EPC members said Wednesday they needed more time to deal with the convention centre’s request. Coun. Marty Morantz, chairman of the finance committee, said he couldn’t support letting Stuart Olson out of its commitment. Coun. John Orlikow said city council may have no other option than to comply with the convention centre’s request.

Complicating the convention centre situation is the role CentreVenture, the city’s downtown development agency, did or did not play in undermining Stuart Olson’s attempt to lure a partner to build and run a hotel on the site of the former Carlton Inn.

CentreVenture officials confirmed to EPC that while the convention centre and Stuart Olson were discussing the likelihood of getting a hotel operator, CentreVenture signed an option on the hotel site to another developer – suspected to be True North – for a mystery project.

CentreVenture CEO Angela Mathieson refused to divulge any details on the option or confirm that True North is the developer but said it will be a fantastic project for the city.

Bowman and EPC members criticized CentreVenture for its handling of the hotel property and now wants CentreVenture to issue a public request for proposals for the site.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca