Jubilee station developer awarded extra $1.35M

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This article was published 09/02/2018 (3123 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The price tag for the Jubilee transit station keeps going up.

The City of Winnipeg was recently ordered, through an arbitration award, to pay the developer who constructed the facility an additional $1.35 million.

Plus, the city is getting a legal bill of $219,000 to cover arbitration. And it still could face more constructions costs.

The city struck a deal with Gem Equities in 2011 to cost-share the construction of the Jubilee Avenue transit station — estimated at the time to cost $3.9 million — in exchange for guaranteeing a $10-million loan Gem Equities had secured for its adjacent Fort Rouge Yards residential project.

The city’s share of the station was to be $1.67 million, but when the project was completed two years ago, Gem Equities claimed the final cost was much higher than budgeted, and the developer and city hall went to arbitration to resolve the dispute.

The arbitrator whittled down Gem’s original demand, but the result was that with interest charges and the cost of the arbitration process, city hall had to cough up an additional $1.35 million.

An administrative report to Tuesday’s executive policy committee meeting shows the legal tab for the arbitration will cost city hall another $219,000.

A separate report on the arbitration settlement notes, in addition to the $1.35 million, the city also faces a further negotiation with Gem Equities for all or a portion of the station’s underground geothermal infrastructure, which the developer priced at $636,973.

Funding for the $1.35-million arbitration award is being taken from the Stage 1 southwest transit corridor reserve account.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca