Trio deal dead, city confirms
City to pay $200,000 to cut ties with Trio Marine Group
Calling it a “lesson learned” about the need for proper public consultation, Penticton’s mayor announced Wednesday the city will pay $200,000 to cut ties with Trio Marine Group and turn the page on a tumultuous chapter in the community’s history.
“Going back two years, we really had good intentions in trying to revitalize the marina and create some sort of amenity or attraction in the park. It sort of went off the rails in terms of our process,” said Andrew Jakubeit.
“No one anticipated it to spiral into what it did.”
The buyout — an amount of which was negotiated in advance by the two sides — will force Trio to wind up its operations at Skaha Marina at the end of the 2018 boating season.
That hit to taxpayers is on top of the $169,000 the city estimates it spent on staff, legal and other costs during its dealings with Trio over the past two years. It will be offset by $113,000 in revenue expected from the company through 2018.
Jakubeit said the controversial 29-year lease with Trio made sense when the company was going to spend $4 million to build waterslides in Skaha Park and upgrade the marina. But a long-term pact made less sense when the waterslides were dropped late last year in response to public backlash and Trio scaled back its planned investment to just $1.5 million at the marina.
“That was really the impetus for us to reconsider and enact the opportunity to end our relationship,” said Jakubeit.
Word of the break-up was welcomed by the Save Skaha Park Society, which formed two years ago and signed up thousands of members to fight off Trio’s advance into the public space.
“SSPS is delighted with the news that the City of Penticton is severing all ties with Trio Marine Group and that Skaha Park will remain in the hands of the people who own it, namely the citizens of Penticton,” spokeswoman Lisa Martin said in a statement.
She also noted the society argued as far back as November 2016 for the city to write the $200,000 cheque.
“We regret that it took the City of Penticton this long and at this cost to achieve that end,” said Martin.
Trio is owned by Penticton businessman Tom Hedquist and Kelowna businessman Tom Dyas, who also serves as president of that city’s chamber of commerce. Dyas said he expected Trio to issue a statement late Wednesday, but it didn’t arrive prior to press time.
Jakubeit, who described the split as a mutual parting of ways, said the city began drawing up divorce papers earlier this summer, but delayed the announcement until the break-up was finalized and boating season had ended.
The city waited nine months after killing the waterslides to do the same to the marina agreement, he continued, in order “to let the dust settle” so both sides could “reevaluate their positions.”
Jakubeit said he doesn’t regret partnering with Trio in the first place, and has since come to more fully appreciate the need for adequate public consultation.
The original deal with Trio “was talked about among council for almost two years, but we never went for that amount of time to the public for them to absorb, to comment, to give input on it,” he explained.
“I guess it would be a lesson learned on the power of engagement and the need for proper engagement, and you’re seeing that now.”
He pointed to extensive public engagement activities on the likes of Memorial Arena’s fate, the Official Community Plan update and the Parks and Recreation Master Plan as evidence of the city’s new approach to consultation.
As for the future of Skaha Marina, Jakubeit noted that, too, will go out for public consultation beginning this fall to decide what to do with the aging facilities there.
“I think we’re looking for sort of a fresh start, a clean slate,” he said.
It sort of went off the rails in terms of our process.No one anticipated it to spiral into what it did. Mayor Andrew Jakubeit