Some councillors regret Boardwalk deal
Lease extension allowing chain eateries in prime Beach space called ‘a tragedy’
It was dark outside Toronto city hall when the votes were cast in a mostly empty chamber to sign a solesourced 20-year lease extension with Tuggs Inc. that had been controversial for years.
The tally was 15-12 from a 45-member council.
A whopping 18 council members, including then-mayor David Miller, former Tuggs booster Sandra Bussin and vocal Tuggs critic Rob Ford, missed the late-night vote.
The Boardwalk Café lease at Ashbridges Bay was among more than 100 items on the two-day agenda, but it’s the one that hasn’t been forgotten. In the words of one former councillor who was there and voted for it, the lease extension remains a “political hot football” with no sign of cooling.
In the latest twist, Tuggs owner George Foulidis will ask city council next month to reassign part of the lease — which runs until Sept. 16, 2028 — to restaurant giant Cara Operations Ltd., which in July opened a chain restaurant at the prime beachand-boardwalk site beside the Tim Hortons franchise Foulidis opened in the spring.
Several councillors have expressed dismay that the lease extension — originally championed by Bussin to protect the family-run “mom and pop” Boardwalk Café from competing with big fast-food chains for the lease — has seen Boardwalk replaced by two chain eateries beside Foulidis’s Athens bakery.
Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon, who beat Bussin in Ward 32 in the election months after the Tuggs vote, calls the lease “a tragedy all around.”
She says Tuggs has driven away some charity events by wielding the lease’s veto over community events involving food, drink or the sale of items, in four neighbouring parks.
A manager for Foulidis’s company that manages the site flatly rejected that suggestion.
“Throughout the years, we have served the interest and benefits for hundreds of local community and charitable groups,” David Valente of Boardwalk Place said in an email.
Efforts to contact Foulidis for an interview about the lease, including through Valente, were unsuccessful.
The Star interviewed five councillors and an ex-councillor who voted in 2010 for the lease extension, which was originally approved in 2007 — against the recommendation of city staff for a competitive process.
The lease had returned to council in 2010 unsignedbecause staff were unable to agree on terms with Foulidis.
Four of the councillors said they never would have voted for the lease extension had they know it would result in chain eateries on choice waterfront city land.
Some also said council learned valuable lessons.
For example, an unsolicited lease extension offer, like the one Tuggs made to the city in 2006, would now land in the city’s partnerships office rather than the floor of council.
Bussin, who declined to vote on the 2010 item after being criticized for her earlier support and Foulidis family contributions to her election campaigns, did not respond to a request for an interview.