Panel backs tax break for downtown tower

Saskatoon’s longest-serving mayor helped convince a city council committee to grant a full tax break to a new downtown office development.

Don Atchison appeared before the planning, development and community services committee Monday to lobby for a 100 per cent property tax abatement for five years for the project at the corner of Third Avenue South and 22nd Street East.

Atchison now works as a business development consultant for Canwest Commercial & Land Corporation, which is planning the nine-storey World Trade Center building at the former site of the Affinity Credit Union head office.

Atchison called the planned $55-million structure an “iconic” building.

“There is no other building of this type in the province of Saskatchewan,” Atchison told the committee.

The tax abatement approved unanimously by Mayor Charlie Clark and five councillors would apply to the building for the first five years of operation. Canwest, a “sister” company of North Prairie Developments Ltd., would still pay full property tax on the land.

The tax break was estimated at $425,000 a year for a total of $2.13 million. A City of Saskatoon administration report recommended a 95 per cent property tax abatement, but Atchison successfully convinced the committee the project deserved a 100 per cent break.

“I don’t think this is an unfair request at all,” Atchison said.

Atchison cited the 192 parking spots for vehicles in the planned underground parking facility and 20 bike stalls.

The building will host a 3,000- to 4,000-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor, he said.

“I don’t see any difference between this and Parcel Y or any of the other buildings we gave 100 per cent abatement to,” Coun. Troy Davies said.

The tax abatement is part of a program that dates back to 2011 to encourage development on vacant or underused properties in the downtown.

The abatement currently applies to both the municipal and education portion of property tax, but the province has indicated it may reconsider whether the education portion will continue to be part of the abatement program, a city report says.

Such a move could reduce the abatement by about 40 per cent.

Construction on the building is expected to begin soon with completion scheduled for 2019. The building on the southeast corner of Third and 22nd was originally projected to be the location of a 27-storey tower as part of a twintower project by North Prairie.

There is no other building of this type in the province of Saskatchewan.