Collingwood’s mayor and deputy mayor have assured citizens that work is underway to protect the town in the Collingwood Terminals deal, but the details are still confidential.
“As wonderful as this [development proposal] is …. We have to manage what risk our municipality is getting into and make sure, as much as possible, that there are no risks,” said Mayor Yvonne Hamlin. “I can assure you that these concerns are being looked into.”
Deputy Mayor Tim Fryer said he couldn’t share details discussed in closed-session meetings, but also said the town recognizes the need for contingencies and offloading the risk.
“Our understanding is the proponent needs to look at this in more detail,” said Fryer. “The developer … needs to have the base understanding of the memorandum of understanding to give them a solid foot underneath.”
Council, at its committee of the whole meeting on June 5, was asked to give its support to staff to execute a memorandum of understanding with the terminals developers Streetcar and Dream. While the decision still has to be ratified by a vote of council, the Monday night vote was approved.
The preliminary agreement, which is non-binding and as-yet unsigned, between the town and the developers is being kept mostly confidential so far. However, some details shared with the public include the town’s intention to sell 0.2 acres of land (approximately) to the developers for the condominium tower, and enter a long-term lease for the rest of the land under the terminals building (about 0.8 acres). The town would keep ownership of the rest of the 20-acre property on The Spit.
Currently, the concrete silos, formerly a grain elevator for rail and shipping commercial operations, are classified as abandoned. Earlier this year, plans for the Collingwood Terminals building were presented to the public. Streetcar proposes turning them into a 10-floor hotel and ground-floor restaurant, cafe, and community space. Beside the Terminals building, Streetcar proposed a 24-storey residential condominium tower.
To start the meeting, the town’s executive director of customer and corporate services, Amanda Pegg, delivered a history of the project and the lengthy process to choose Streetcar Developments and Dream as the private partner for the revitalization plan for the former grain elevator and storage building and The Spit.
Collingwood residents John Megarry, Margaret Mooy, and Bing Jowett attended the meeting and spoke to council to weigh in on the proposal.
Mooy said the town should take better care of the building now, and live up to its own standards for property maintenance.
Jowett agreed with Mooy’s call for better care of the building until its redeveloped.
“Over the next five years, the town has to show that we respect it,” said Jowett.
Megarry presented a list of questions and concerns about the town’s liability in the agreement with Streetcar and Dream. In particular, he questioned why the town would propose a long-term lease of the land under the terminals, instead of selling all the land under the building to the developer.
“That was a big surprise and a significant disappointment to me,” he said. “If it’s going to be leased, what is the plan for protecting town residents … down the road?”
He also asked if the town considered performance bonds to be used as a contingency if work doesn’t get complete, and/or if something happens and the developer walks away from the
In response to the comments from residents, Pegg said the memorandum of understanding is a preliminary step before a legal and binding development agreement is worked out. She said the next steps will involve consulting all stakeholders, including the public, to comment on the vision for the project and any concerns from parking to the town’s liabilities.
She said the memo agreement will also allow some investigative work to happen. Though she didn’t confirm exactly what investigative work would take place, she mentioned it could include a parking study, and looking at the status of the contained disposal facility on The Spit.
After the shipyards closed, and as part of the process to clean up the water in the harbour, some contaminated soils dredged from the harbour were put into a disposal site that has formed The Spit/Millennium Park and contained there with environmental protocols to monitor and protect the site. Part of the plan from Streetcar and Dream is to dig deep to build underground parking at the terminals site.
Dave McNalty, the town’s manager of fleet, facilities and purchasing explained there is some ongoing maintenance on the terminals building, but it doesn’t include larger projects like replacing the roof, removal of asbestos and bird droppings, and painting the exterior of the building.
McNalty said, however, the town does replace window panes regularly and keeps up safe access – via a passenger elevator – for staff and contractors.
The town has set up an intruder alarm system and security cameras at the terminals building, and has replaced the plywood in the basement windows on the park side of the building.
“One of our primary focuses is to keep the place secure, keep the birds out of where we can keep them out, and keep out other wildlife as well,” said McNalty, adding there has been a family of racoons trying to move in on more than one occasion.
Coun. Kathy Jeffery, chair of the committee meeting, said she was glad to be moving forward on the terminals file.
“This agenda item has gone through so many councils and not been dealth with,” she said.
Mayor Hamlin said she looks forward to moving forward on the project.
“This memorandum of understanding is non-binding, but it does set a substantial foundation for the legal documents that will be negotiated,” said Hamlin via video link.
Council will still have to give its final approval for the memorandum of understanding to be signed.
If council approves the memorandum of understanding, the town and developer will start negotiating on the binding agreements and finalizing the concept for the land, which will include public engagement.
Among the plans presented in March were also changes to the public park area to include more amenities like a swimming pier, space for non-motorized water activities, a skating rink, and winter warming stations. The estimated completion date for the work, should it go ahead, is 2028.
Additional details from the staff report note the town's financial commitment to the project is about $15 million. But since it's early in the process, the budget could change.
The town would be contributing to the cost of the public amenities on the spit, and could apply development charges to the projects that are eligible.
According to the staff report, the cost for preserving or demolishing the Terminals building as-is ranges from $8 million to $12 million. Those costs would not be eligible as a development charges project, and represent estimated costs from several years ago so are likely lower than actual costs.
