Three new projects to take advantage of CIP funds
Multiple building projects receiving Community Improvement Plan rebates
Mayor Drew Dilkens on Wednesday announced three substantial downtown developments that he deemed “amazing ” and “incredible,” spurred by the city’s new batch of incentives called the Community Improvement Plan. The projects include: A $32.9-million, 120-unit residential building, 16 storeys high, with commercial on the ground floor and underground parking, to be built on a parking lot at the northwest corner of Victoria Avenue and Park Street. Redeveloping a long-vacant twostorey Pelissier Street bar into a hip five-storey industrial-styled building with commercial on the main floor and 24 industrial-style units above. And the $13.6-million rejuvenation of the former Radisson Hotel — gutted and left vacant for the last few years — into a highend hotel, probably a Doubletree, with a new restaurant fronting Riverside Drive.
Total investment for these three projects amounts to $52.1 million. The incentives by the city — if approved by council — add up to $5.9 million. Much of that will come in tax rebates based on the difference between the taxes paid now on the properties, compared to the taxes paid on the redeveloped property, paid out in grants over five or 10 years.
“It’s money in, money out from our perspective and it’s not money we ever would have had without the availability of the program,” the mayor said, explaining how the CIP helped entice these developers to “put their whole foot in the water” when it comes to downtown investment.
“It’s amazing, it’s incredible,” Dilkens said. “When these happened, it’s just further proof that the CIP was the right thing to do.” The three applications to the CIP are going to the city’s planning, heritage and economic development standing committee on May 14. Philip Fernandes of Philip Fernandes Designs, one of three local firms along with BK Cornerstone and Distinctive Homes, behind the Pelissier Street project, called the CIP program “extremely critical.” If approved by council, the development would get as much as $620,000 in grants, mostly from tax rebates.
“We can’t do the project without it,” Fernandez said. SIND Investments, whose principal is Parkash Ramchandani, is behind the 120-unit tower at Victoria and Park, which would be the largest residential building to be built in the core in decades, and clearly fulfils one of the CIPs objectives to rejuvenate the downtown by getting more people to live there.
Staff are recommending $50,000 from the New Residential Grant Program, which gives $2,500 for each new unit up to $50,000 and $15,000 from the Retail Investment Grant Program for the main floor commercial. But the big incentive is 10 years of grants that rebate the tax increase. The difference between the current tax on the parking lot ($6,027) and the new building ($191,434) amounts to $185,407 per year. And the grant will continue for 10 years instead of the normal five because it’s being classed as a catalyst project that will spur more development downtown. So the tax savings will add up to $1.85 million.
The hotel redevelopment is also being recommended for a catalyst designation, meaning it would be rebated $3.4 million over 10 years. It’s taxes would rise from $52,222 now to $396,054 once the project is done. The hotel’s owner, London, Ont.-based developer Shmuel Farhi, estimates the new restaurant will employ 40 full-time and 50 part-time employees, and the hotel will employ 50 full-time and 40 part-time staff. The work also includes finally covering up the plastic cladding on the west side of the building — a longtime eyesore, according to Dilkens.
The building on Pelissier is the former Don Cherry’s, last known as the Box Office, which surrendered its liquor licence in 2009, went into receivership and was put up for sale after two fatal shootings nearby in 2007 and 2003 tarnished its reputation.
The developers originally planned on renovating the existing two floors and adding a third, but now they’re planning a total of five storeys with 24 high-end residential units, commercial on the main floor and a rooftop terrace. They’re calling the building The Hive on Pelissier, with a vision of it becoming a hive of bustling downtown activity.
There has been a steady stream of applications to the CIP since council approved it last fall. Most notable are the multimillion-dollar overhaul of the long-vacant Fish Market building, eligible for more than $445,000 in CIP grants, and Peter Valente’s plan to build a $5-million 24-unit condo building on Ouellette Avenue thanks to more than $300,000 in incentives.