Province asked to contribute nearly $6M to public plaza at True North Square
City poised to approve $3.2M in tax rebates to help create plaza, part of $400M True North Square
The Pallister government is mulling a $5.7-million contribution to the public plaza component of True North Square.
True North Development is building an $8.9-million public plaza as part of True North Square, a $400-million project that involves the construction of four towers, a parkade and more than one million square feet of office, residential, retail and restaurant space.
On Wednesday morning, city council's executive policy committee will consider a grant of up to $3.2 million to build the public plaza. The grant would come in form of city property-tax rebates following the completion of the first phase of True North Square in June 2018.
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The city funding is also contingent upon similar tax rebates from the province — the remainder of the $8.9-million tab for the public plaza, True North Development president Jim Ludlow said.
"The balance is the obligation of the province," Ludlow said Tuesday in an interview in True North Development's Graham Avenue boardroom, which overlooks the True North Square construction site.
"I think the province is in some ways ahead of the city. I think the report recommending the support was recommended back to [provincial] treasury in December. So I think as well it's just a matter of finding its way through the housekeeping exercise with the province."
The province has yet to confirm its support for the plaza — and is unlikely to do so before the provincial budget is tabled in April.
"The province is reviewing the city's commitment and will take its implications for the provincial budget under consideration," Pallister government spokesperson Caitlin MacGregor said in a statement.
This funding mechanism on the table is called tax-increment financing, where increases in property-tax revenue that result from improvements to a piece of land — in this case, a former surface parking lot — are either returned to the property owner or spent on public amenities in the immediate area.
The first phase of True North Square is under construction at the site of a former surface parking lot that generated about $100,000 a year in property taxes, Ludlow said. Once this phase of the project is completed, it will generate about $4.2 million a year in property taxes, he added.
The city and province have already approved $25 million worth of tax-increment financing for improvements in the vicinity of MTS Centre, formally known as the city's "sports, hospitality and entertainment district." To date, $7.4 million has been spent on streetscaping in the area.
The city and province have been asked to reallocate the remaining $17.6 million of previously approved tax-increment financing in the area around True North Square for streetscaping, sidewalk and intersection improvements, as well as new skywalks that will connect the new development to Cityplace and RBC Convention Centre.
The $8.9 million in tax-increment financing for the public plaza is outside of this funding. Ludlow said True North is building a "fully programmable" space with embedded power for the likes of food trucks and other amenities.
"What you see in the renderings is exactly what's going to be built," Ludlow said. "All the public spaces have advanced in design as the rest of the components of the project have as well."
"In essence that becomes a public plaza space, on private property, but maintained by a private sector for public use," Kiernan said.
Council's executive policy committee is expected to approve the city's end of the additional grant for the plaza.
"I think it's a good investment. The project is $400 million, so it's not a bad return," said council property chair John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry). "I believe we're done on our side. We haven't had any new asks come in lately. I hope this is it."
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