Council expected to approve changes to waterfront development

City council’s closed-door dealings Monday night surrounding the private-sector development at Prince Arthur’s Landing are a secret no more.

City manager Tim Commisso on Friday revealed that during the in-camera session council approved a motion to allow the Resolve Group, the developer behind the controversial hotel and two condominium buildings on the waterfront, to build the foundations for the three facilities simultaneously.

The city will also sell the parcel of land to the developer as three separate entities.

Commisso said it was simple housekeeping ahead of the land-transfer deal, expected to be signed between the two parties later this month.

“That’s the best way to build, it just makes sense,” Commisso said, questioned by media after a news conference.

“It’s all a shared parking structure. So they had to get approval to do that, to proceed with the concurrent construction of the foundation for all three of the buildings. And in doing that, it lets them set the completion date which then satisfies their obligations under the (Ontario Home Warranty) Program, which are quite specific.”

A second resolution finalized the lease agreement for the 90 private parking spots in the Pearl Street lot, ensuring they are calculated in the same manner as the parking spaces they’ll be maintaining in the west parking lot.

The lease of the former spaces will also include full capital cost recovery of the spaces, since the city is constructing the 90 spots dedicated to the hotel.

“They are fully prepared to pay for the construction of that through a monthly lease fee. So there would be a capital component. And they’ve asked that similar to the west lot, which part of it they will own, that they are responsible fully for the maintenance, the enforcement and all of that.

“Essentially what it does is allow them to operate the two parking lots the same,” Commisso said.

The supposed secrecy behind the deal had drawn the ire of several council watchers, including Jon Hutt, who at one point was banned from Marina Park for allegedly trespassing on the construction site.

Hutt, in a letter to council obtained by TB Newswatch, outlined the seven categories that allows council to head behind closed doors for deliberation, and questioned why the discussions weren’t held in public. He was concerned the city might be relieving the Resolve Group of its responsibility to construct the hotel, which has yet to be publicly branded.

“I believe that this media/publicity blackout serves only one purpose: to protect members of city council  and administration from the inevitable wrath of the municipal taxpayers for as long as possible, long enough for the media spinners to do their dirty work.”

The resolution is expected to be presented publicly to council on Monday.