November 8, 2023City CouncilMeeting 25

Lansdowne Partnership Plan - Authorization to Proceed to the Next Steps in the Redevelopment Report

Council was asked to

recommendation 2 (d) be removed from the Lansdowne 2.0 Redevelopment Report, as written below: “Approve an $18.6 million budget for the construction of a maximum of 140 parking spaces beneath the North Side Stands to be leased to the 3 residential tower owners and funded by debt with the lease revenue offset by debt servicing to be paid from the parking reserve.”
other options be considered to make use of this space that can contribute to city revenues or benefit the community
that, in the event no other use is identified for this space, $3M be added to the cost of the Lansdowne 2.0 project to fill the space left by the arena, to be funded by debt and additional annual debt servicing of $150K
any reduction in the value of air rights would need to be funded by additional debt.

Lost

8 for, 17 against

the Lansdowne 2.0 Report provides an updated cost estimate of $419.1M that introduces $312.7M in new debt and brings the debt servicing cost up to $16.4M annually, despite already precarious debt servicing funding sources
the Lansdowne 2.0 Report currently recommends that $18.6 million be approved for the construction of a maximum of 140 parking spaces beneath the North Side Stands that are intended to be released to residential tower owners for private use only
the cost for these 140 parking spaces were not included in the updated cost estimate of $419.1M and would increase the total project cost by an additional $18.6M and annual debt servicing by an additional $1M
the cost of construction for these 140 parking spaces has increased significantly beyond the expected revenue from selling and/or renting these private parking spots and will only cover 40% of the construction costs
the remaining 60% (or $600k annually) loss is to be paid using funds from City reserves, which could have otherwise been put toward city-wide projects that would benefit the general public
the City would therefore use a significant amount of public funds and place additional debt on taxpayers to subsidize the construction of private parking spots, which will provide no clear benefit to the general public

This entry was transcribed from the City Clerk's official minutes. If anything here looks wrong, the minutes are the authority.