Bowman demanding CentreVenture issue proposals for Carlton properties

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This article was published 20/01/2015 (4224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said he will demand the city’s downtown development agency issue a request for proposals to develop the former Carlton Inn site — no matter what arrangements may be in place right now.

Bowman told reporters Tuesday he is unable to discuss a tentative deal in place to develop the land at 220 Carlton St., which arm’s-length city agency CentreVenture purchased for $6.6 million in 2012 and earmarked for a hotel to serve an expanded RBC Convention Centre.

“Legal considerations preclude me from speaking on certain things,” Bowman said.

True North Sports & Entertainment is said to have plans to develop both 220 Carlton St. and 225 Carlton St., a surface-parking lot to the east. True North has not confirmed this plan.

Multiple sources confirm CentreVenture signed an option on 220 Carlton St. before Sept. 30, 2014, when former agency president and CEO Ross McGowan disclosed this to a private developer interested in the land.

Construction company Stuart Olson was obligated to build a hotel on the site to fulfill the terms of its bid for the $180-million job. If it did not build the hotel, it was supposed to face a $16-million holdback on its compensation.

Sources say that obligation was nullified in November 2014, when CentreVenture told Colliers International, a real-estate firm working on behalf of Stuart Olson to bring a hotel to the table, to stop representing itself as acting for the owner of the land.

CentreVenture’s board said in a statement Stuart Olson actually gave up on the hotel in April 2014.

A deal heading before council’s executive policy on Wednesday would see Stuart Olson instead pay $3.75 million to the convention centre, which would then forward the cash to the city to cover its line of credit extended to CentreVenture to make the Carlton Inn purchase.

CentreVenture’s new president and CEO, ‎Angela Mathieson, said she will speak publicly about the issue at Wednesday’s meeting. True North declined comment.

Bowman said he has demanded answers from CentreVenture because he wants to know all the facts regarding 220 Carlton St. He said the public has a right to know all the details of any deal in place, regardless of the identity of the developer.

He said this in response to a question regarding his mayoral-race endorsement by True North president Mark Chipman.

Bowman also said he could not comment on Canad Inns Corporation’s role in taking partial ownership of the St. Regis Hotel and Carlton Inn in 2012.

Canad Inns chief financial officer Dan Lussier confirmed CentreVenture asked the company to assist the agency ‎”in a complicated transaction” that would have led CentreVenture to pay additional taxes if the deal did not include the private firm’s assistance.

“Their legal counsel explained the situation and that there was nothing untoward in the transaction. The transaction had also been recommended by Deloitte, their tax consultant,” Lussier said in a statement.

His company owns the nearby Metropolitan Theatre, Tavern United and Radisson Hotel.

‎”We were supportive of CentreVenture’s objectives to work towards a more inviting environment for downtown, in line with the SHED district initiatives and, as such, agreed to help them overcome this tax challenge, on the condition that we would not become financially or legally exposed in any manner. We sought no benefit beyond the opportunity to provide our customers a more inviting and vibrant downtown while visiting our properties.”

Canad Inns expected CentreVenture to sell the two properties within two years, Lussier added. It has asked for its involvement in the deal to end by Jan. 31‎.