TO Star: Major project for waterfront
totally under the radar!
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Nov. 13, 2004. 08:32 AM
Major project for waterfront
Media giant secretly planning $200M headquarters
Queens Quay site would combine newspaper and studios
ROBERT BENZIE AND KERRY GILLESPIE
STAFF REPORTERS
Negotiations to build the largest new venture on Toronto's waterfront in decades — a $200 million television studio and office complex — are quietly underway, the Star has learned.
Media giant CanWest Global is working on a deal with a City of Toronto agency to build a studio and newspaper headquarters next to the Redpath sugar plant on Queens Quay, just east of Jarvis St., sources say.
The development — code-named Project 24/7 — could be announced within a month, and involves leasing city-owned land for at least 50 years to CanWest Global, the Winnipeg-based company that owns Global Television and the National Post.
But some would prefer to see parkland, housing, or a public building on such a prominent lakefront site instead of a large commercial-industrial facility.
"It's a great project. It belongs on the waterfront, but it doesn't necessarily belong on that parcel of land," said one provincial government official familiar with the negotiations.
Not so, say the two deputy mayors who sit on the board of the Toronto Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO), the city's agency, which owns the land and, sources say, has been in negotiations with CanWest Global for months.
While refusing to comment specifically on this project, both Joe Pantalone and Mike Feldman said that any major deal TEDCO was involved in wouldn't be a problem.
"TEDCO is not a freelancer on the waterfront," Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) said. "Anything TEDCO would propose would fit in perfectly with the waterfront plan."
The waterfront corporation's aim is to transform 46 kilometres of waterfront into vibrant neighbourhoods full of homes, jobs and parks. But whenever there's talk about what will actually be built, concerns about another wall of towers like that west of Yonge St. aren't far behind.
That fear is one reason many people favour a plan that puts nothing but parks and open space along the water.
Feldman knows people like parks, and the waterfront plan calls for hundreds of hectares of them, but he says the city also needs businesses and the income they bring.
"Unless we create a work atmosphere down there, other than our parks ... all we're doing is reversing the rush-hour in this city," Feldman (Ward 10, York Centre) said.
Secret project would bring CanWest Global facilities together on the waterfront
The deal TEDCO is working on, which Feldman said he can't comment on, will "create opportunity for business" and maintain the vision of a waterfront for the people.
"It doesn't interfere with the parks, it doesn't interfere with the trails, it doesn't interfere with the waterfront," he said. "All those things are the domain of the citizens of this city, but we still have to be able to service that citizenry and we need the bucks to service them."
Geoffrey Elliott, vice-president of corporate affairs for CanWest Global, was tight-lipped on the top-secret project. "As far as we're concerned it's speculative, and we don't comment on speculation," he said in an interview from Winnipeg.
Asked if the company was planning to converge its television and newspaper operations under one roof, Elliott was circumspect: "Obviously CanWest has operations in various physical locations in Toronto and it's certainly reasonable to look at whether that's the most efficient way of doing things."
A source familiar with the deal said CanWest Global was concerned some employees wouldn't want to work downtown and at one point had been considering Mississauga.
Getting a major employer to build a headquarters on the waterfront is a feather in the mayor's cap, the source said. Politically, Mayor David Miller needs action on the waterfront.
In 2001, Ottawa, Queen's Park and the city announced a grand plan to revitalize the waterfront and created the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation. Since then, little but planning has happened and many wonder if that's all that will ever happen.
Earlier this week — on Miller's first anniversary as mayor — Miller announced he wanted to lead the waterfront corporation so he could get "shovels in the ground" next year.
The mayor's comments came after a barrage of criticism in recent weeks that he hasn't taken enough action on his election promise to improve the waterfront. Yesterday, Miller also said he couldn't talk about any deal TEDCO might be involved in, but spoke about waterfront revitalization.
"What we need on the waterfront are jobs, jobs that are information-age kind of jobs. One of Toronto's great strengths is that we have tremendous potential in those kinds of industries and the waterfront can be a catalyst, if we do it right," Miller said.
Jeffrey Steiner, president and CEO of TEDCO, wasn't willing to comment on the CanWest Global deal. "We hear rumours, too, all the time, but I can't confirm or deny or make a comment on what you've heard," he said.
Insiders say Global's television production centre on Barber Greene Rd. in Don Mills and CanWest's nearby newspaper and magazine publishing offices on Don Mills Rd. — home of the Post — would be moved to the new site.
WITH FILES FROM RICHARD BRENNAN
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source:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...tacodalogin=yes
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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow
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