Now that they have the land, waterfront developers said Thursday Thunder Bay residents can expect fast and furious progress on the $65-million private-sector portion of the controversial project.
Manshield Construction’s Joe Bova, a Winnipeg developer tied in with the Resolve Group to build two condominium units and a hotel at Prince Arthur’s Landing, said without the deed to the property, it was tough to negotiate with potential hoteliers.
On Thursday the city officially signed over the 2.3 acres of waterfront property to the developers for $690,000, which changes the landscape, Bova said, adding a market analysis study they conducted proves Thunder Bay can more than support the proposed four-star hotel.
“If you don’t own the land, it’s very, very difficult to commit to anything or anybody. So now that we own the land I’m sure there will be a very fast negotiations going on over the next six to eight weeks,” said Bova, setting a self-imposed June 30 deadline to narrow potential hoteliers to one.”
Partner Gisele McDonald of the Resolve Group said she hopes to have the condominium presentation centre up and running within five weeks, with sales beginning at that time. She noted they have up to 80 people looking to purchase, with only 51 units available
Construction will begin when 60 per cent of the units are spoken for, she added.
Terms of the deal were not released.
Four years after first being awarded the bid to build the condos and hotel on the Thunder Bay waterfront, MacDonald said it’s been a long haul, but a rewarding one that’s ready to move to the next phase of development.
Delays pushed the transfer deal back by several months, when the city ran into contamination problems in the soil and then had to deal with a major water trunk line running through the property. The developers last month got city council to amend the deal slightly, allowing them to purchase the land in three separate pieces and provide greater latitude with the order of construction.
“The land transfer means we own the land, so we can now start to deal with it on a residential basis, on a hotel basis and on a commercial basis,” she said.
“But what I can tell you is it’s got enough property to do two condominium projects and a hotel. We’re not really sure what’s going to come first. We’ve got the flexibility to do the condominium first and then the hotel, or the hotel and then the condominium.”
Her preference would be to do both at the same time.
“The only thing that would prevent that from happening would just depend on the market and the presales it’s going to take to require to start building.”
Waterfront development committee chairman Mark Bentz said he had his doubts along the way about whether the private-sector portion of the $130-million project would come to fruition, but said he’d feel that way about any project of that magnitude.
He’s convinced it’s full steam ahead from here.
“It’s a very satisfying day for everyone that touched the project, everyone who put their heart and soul in this. It’s nice to see it come to fruition like this. Oftentimes in complex projects of this nature projects don’t often happen. They’re very complicated, there are lots of little hiccups and road bumps, but we seem to have addressed them all and it’s a testament to the good people who were working on this project.”
The city still has plenty of protections in place, said manager of community service Greg Alexander, who noted the agreement won’t let the developers walk away very easily.
“There are commitments on both sides, the city and the developer,” Alexander said. “But we think the city is well protected in insuring the project proceeds. We have protections in case of what happens if the worst-case scenario occurs. There are penalties associated with that we think are onerous enough that the owner would want to keep going.”
Bova said he's not sure why there is so much concern in the community about the project, nor is he concerend about other top-name hotels planned for the city cutting into the success of the waterfront hotel. Neither Bova nor MacDonald, however, could gauge just when construction might begin.
"I hope it's not five years. I hope it's a heck of a lot sooner," he said, when asked if the hotel would be up and running by 2017.
