Street furniture good deal for city
Minimum ad revenue for next year is set at more than $20 million
Toronto taxpayers are getting a good deal on a public-private partnership that provides street furniture and substantial revenue at no cost to the city.
After 10 years, Toronto has raked in more than $168 million as its share of Astral’s revenue from selling ads posted on transit shelters and other street furniture, including $19.3 million in the last fiscal year. When the deal expires in 2027, the city will have earned at least $445 million.
The guaranteed minimum annual revenue in the current fiscal year is set at just over $20 million, with the possibility of even more.
It amounts to 32 per cent of Astral’s gross ad revenues, a fixed percentage for the remainder of the contract.
It also provides 24,500 pieces of street furniture — including garbage bins, transit shelters, benches, information pillars, poster boards and even public toilets — with a value of $202 million, at no cost to taxpayers.
So far, Astral has front-loaded the deal to provide 3,944 new transit shelters of the 5,071 it has committed to over 20 years, mostly as replacements for aging “legacy” shelters.
And here’s a nugget for TTC riders pining for a shelter at stops that currently don’t have one: Most new shelters “are now being installed at locations that have never had a shelter before, and hundreds more will follow in the next few years.”
Public-private partnerships often seem to benefit the private partners more than the public.
But this one looks like a good deal for everybody. What's broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Email to jlakey@thestar.ca or follow @TOStarFixer on Twitter