True North closer to its dream

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This article was published 02/06/2015 (3752 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

True North Sports & Entertainment has secured another piece in a land-assembly puzzle that could result in a $400-million mixed-use development rising between the RBC Convention Centre and the MTS Centre.

The owner of the Winnipeg Jets exercised its option Monday to buy the former Carlton Inn site from downtown development agency CentreVenture, proceeding with the purchase on the day the deal was set to expire.

True North now has the pieces in place it needs to proceed with the construction of True North Square, a proposal to build up the former hotel site at 220 Carlton St., a Manitoba Public Insurance-owned surface-parking lot at 225 Carlton St. and a small chunk of land adjacent to St. Mary’s Cathedral.

The conceptual plan for True North Square, unveiled in February, calls for the construction of three new towers with residential housing, office space, hotel rooms and retail stores, as well as a public plaza, with skywalk connections to Cityplace mall and the RBC Convention Centre.

“This is a real game-changer, in terms of the scale of the development,” CentreVenture president and CEO Angela Mathieson said.

The exercising of the option is a “significant advancement” of the True North Square proposal, True North communications director Scott Brown said in a statement.

Before the deal closes, True North and CentreVenture must complete a development agreement for the former Carlton Inn site and determine the sale price, which a third-party real estate firm will peg at “fair market value” — which will be less than what CentreVenture paid for the land and business.

The arm’s-length city agency paid $6.6 million for the Carlton Inn in 2012, with the original intention of securing the land for a new hotel to serve the expanded RBC Convention Centre. Stuart Olson, the contractor on the $180-million convention-centre expansion, was obligated by contract to build a hotel on the site.

In January, city council approved a plan to relieve Stuart Olson of that obligation in exchange for a $3.75-million payment. CentreVenture turned to True North to develop the land last spring, when Stuart Olson made it clear it could not proceed with its hotel-building plan.

That led Bowman to question how CentreVenture could sign an option on the land with True North while Stuart Olson was obligated to build on the site. Bowman’s characterization of the option as a “backroom deal” led True North chairman Mark Chipman to declare in February the True North Square proposal was on hold.

The dispute between the three parties lasted until April, when the mayor retracted his comments and CentreVenture agreed to forgo the proceeds of Stuart Olson’s penalty payment.

Speaking to reporters at city hall Monday, Bowman declined to comment on the dispute with Chipman and CentreVenture board chairman Curt Vossen, stating everyone has moved on. The mayor lauded True North for its continued investment in downtown Winnipeg and CentreVenture for assisting with the land-assembly effort. Bowman said he isn’t concerned the agency will lose money on the purchase of the Carlton Inn site, as it did with its purchase and sale of the St. Regis Hotel on Smith Street.

CentreVenture spent $7.7 million buying and then maintaining the St. Regis Hotel before closing on two separate deals to sell the property for a combined $4.7 million.

“CentreVenture has been set up to make strategic investments in our community, and it’s a unique business model intended to spur development,” Bowman said. “They’ve made good on that. This is a sizable development — one of the largest of its kind in Winnipeg’s history — and that’s what CentreVenture was set up to do, to spur those sorts of investments from the private sector, and that’s what’s happened today.”

True North Square is in the running to house a new downtown headquarters for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries. The Crown corporation has yet to choose where its new HQ will go, vice-president Susan Olynik said in a statement.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca