CAPITAL POINTE TIMELINE
Huge hole should be filled by fall
The Capital Pointe hole could disappear by Halloween, after the City of Regina selected a contractor to fill in the excavation pit that has long haunted the corner of Albert Street and Victoria Avenue.
The work is expected to cost $2,601,819, excluding taxes. The city is also allowing for a contingency of $390,272. The total cost of $2,992,091 will be charged to the property-tax bill of the owner, which land titles show is still Westgate Properties.
Construction will start in June, according to an administration report that came to council on Monday. It is expected to be complete by the end of October.
Diana Hawryluk, the city’s executive director of city planning and community development, acknowledged the timeline is weather dependent. But she said the city’s goal is to get the site filled as quickly as possible.
She said crews from the successful bidder, CBS Contracting Inc., will sometimes work 24 hours a day. Work will be scheduled to avoid traffic disruptions, according to administration.
Westgate has repeatedly fought the city’s efforts to fill in the hole, where it had intended to build a hotel and condo tower, promised since 2009. The city maintained that the excavation pit was unsafe and ordered Westgate to backfill it in April of last year. The company challenged that at an appeal board, which gave it options that could allow it to keep the hole and build the tower.
But the city appealed that decision, and a court sent the matter back to the appeal board in November. The board this time ruled in the city’s favour, deeming the site “effectively abandoned” in February. It ordered Westgate to fill the hole by March 30.
The city quickly moved to seek a contractor, in expectation that Westgate might again fail to comply. The deadline came and went with no action from Westgate. That gave the city the legal authority to go ahead with the work.
CBS Contracting crews will be busy over the summer. They will be tasked with backfilling the hole, removing the shoring around it and stripping the site of facilities and other debris. Workers will also need to repair a storm main and sidewalks adjacent to the site.
In the end, the property will be fenced off and paved over.
The city will attempt to collect from Westgate, which has been largely owned by Fortress Real Developments but now has a more complicated ownership structure. Fortress became the lead developer in 2014, and its COO and CEO remain officers in Westgate.
“Administration will be placing these costs as they are incurred onto the property-tax roll in two week increments,” administration’s report said. “If the taxes remain unpaid, the City will follow the tax-enforcement process to collect.”
The hole has seen little activity since 2017, roughly two years after Fortress began excavation work. The company came under RCMP investigation and saw its offices raided last year. It has faced heavy criticism from investors who, according to the Globe and Mail, lent it more than $920 million for real estate projects that, in many cases, never got off the ground.
Many say they have stopped getting interest payments and fear they will never get their principal back, including those who invested directly in the Capital Pointe project. The property was recently listed for sale at $8.5 million. Investors have sunk at least $14 million into the project.