Project leasing despite lack of concessions

Last October Rod Mitchell had told council he’d likely pull the plug on the Empire Terrace Suites development without concessions from the city.

"It's on the precipice," Mitchell said at the time.

Those concessions were not forthcoming, but the project went ahead anyway.

And on Thursday over 400 people showed up to view floor plans for the yet-to-be-built 4088-square metre, 56-unit retirement complex.

Mitchell says “our top suites” have already been rented, although the building won’t be ready until October.

“We left council and came back and said ‘we’ve already got foundations in, we’re going to do this,” Mitchell said during an interview at the Empire Living Centre, to which the Empire Terrace Suites will be adjacent.

“We were pi—ed off with what happened but we had to make a decision and the decision was to go ahead and complete the project. I’m not happy with the way it turned out, but I’ve got to live with it.”

Need to reap CIP benefits
Mitchell had asked the previous city council to extend the benefits of the downtown Community Improvement Plan to the Empire development, even though the project is outside CIP boundaries.

The company, Mitchell said, needed to reap CIP benefits including the exemption from development charges, planning and building fees rebates, and the phasing-in of incremental tax increases, if it was to proceed with the expansion. The request would have meant a future savings of more than $300,000.

But city solicitor Michael Burke said a Municipal Act clause prevented North Bay’s outgoing council from providing non-financial incentives Mitchell’s company.

“We were told we were going to get a break similar to the other people developing in town and it didn’t happen,” Mitchell said, although he decline to mention who provided the information.

Redcues taxes by half
A pending deal between the city and Dalron Construction Ltd., which is planning to build a retirement complex on part of the rail lands, would allow the company to pay only half its property taxes each year during the first five years of a 10-year agreement, said deputy mayor Peter Chirico

Those taxes would increase by one-fifth every year in the second five-year period until they reach the full amount in the final year.