Developer gets extension for Portage Place renovation

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This article was published 21/07/2021 (1253 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A key city deadline for the proposed $400-million redevelopment of the Portage Place mall will be postponed to give the developer more time to seek federal funding.

On Thursday, city council voted 11 to 5 to let developer Starlight Investments get its construction financing in place by Oct. 31 instead of July 23, the original deadline tied to a $20-million city incentive package for the project.

“There haven’t been significant investments or a reimagining of that space for decades. So it’s been a long time coming… That space could do a lot more for our community than it’s doing right now,” Mayor Brian Bowman told reporters prior to the vote.

The project proposes to create two 20-storey residential towers with 550 to 600 housing units, nearly 500,000 square feet of office and retail space, a grocery store and a 10,000-square-foot community space with public washrooms.

Councillors Matt Allard, Ross Eadie, Brian Mayes, Shawn Nason and Jason Schreyer voted against the deadline extension.

Mayes said he’s not convinced council won’t be asked to allow further delays on the project, which he argues has also lacked transparency.

“To me, there’s still a lot of loose ends here… I just don’t think this is the right dance partner for the city in terms of moving forward on this site,” said Mayes.

During the meeting, a Starlight representative said the extension is needed for the company to secure federal government funding, which it has been discussing with the Canadian government for months. Howie Paskowitz, Starlight’s executive director of development, said more support is now required because the plans were revised to ensure 30 per cent of the housing units have affordable rents.

“We think that this extension to October will allow us the time we need to sort… through everything with (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) and the federal government,” said Paskowitz.

Starlight officials were not available for interviews following the council vote. They have previously said the project won’t be completed without financial support from all three levels of governments.

The developer originally asked for $20 million each from the city, province and federal government. In March, Ottawa said Starlight asked it to instead pay $50 million in cash and provide a $243-million Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation loan. In a June 30 letter, Starlight states it is seeking an “approximately” $250-million CMHC loan.

Bowman said he’s confident that if the federal funding is approved, the project will get built.

“I don’t know too many business people who couldn’t make that level of financial support through three levels of government work. This is prime real estate in the City of Winnipeg… I’m optimistic that if that support is provided in full, as they’ve requested from the federal government, that the development would proceed,” said Bowman.

Federal cabinet minister Dan Vandal, who has spoken about the federal funding request for the project in the past, was not available for an interview Thursday.

The Manitoba government has promised to provide up to $28.7 million in education tax rebates to support the Portage Place redevelopment.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga