Boutique hotel could fill vacant lot
By COLLIN GALLANT on April 13, 2019.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant The long cherished wish of downtown boosters – a “boutique hotel” in the heart of the city centre – could become a reality, city council’s Monday agenda reveals. The News was first to report this week that officials with the city land office had a final offer pending for the sale of the long-vacant lot at 603 First Street SE. Council’s agenda for April 15 shows elected officials will consider the deal that would see the land be sold for $364,500 to a developer who wants to build a five-storey hotel on the site that is kitty corner from city hall. It also comes as city administrators are separately presenting a plan to enact new powers from the provincial government to offer multi-year property tax breaks to help redevelop problematic properties. That land, a former car dealership that was acquired by the city in the early 1980s, has become a metaphor for a lack of activity in the core. A handful of conditional sales since 2008 have fallen through when local developers pulled out, saying that office rent or condo prices needed to cover construction costs were well above local market value. In 2016, council shelved a potential city-led development of two tower commercial-residential buildings with underground parking, while stressing that a substantial building is required. A general description of the project, including in minutes of a city administrative meeting on April 3, states a 60-room hotel would comprise one half the site as a first phase, while a potential second phase might include residential condos with two floors of parkade at ground level. The hotel would have ground floor commercial space, then four floors of rooms above. Currently there are 74 parking stalls at the site. Planners state in the rationale that brownfield development leads to a multiplying effect that could boost investment throughout the city centre. The News has been unable to determine the ownership of the developer, named as Spero Hydrocarbons Ltd. in city documents. The potential deal, if approved, would close on Sept. 30, and if closed, the city would have to repurchase the land at 90 per cent of the cost if construction doesn’t commence within 18 months. A potential tax break on the site could potentially add up to $400,000 over the next five years. The bylaw, which was met with strong support at committee meetings this week, is site specific and would have to be approved after a public hearing, likely on May 6. This Monday’s agenda also will see the resumption of a public hearing to rezone the former Riverside School site. That proceeding was halted in late March when the owner, Covenant Health, expressed the need for more time through a letter from its lawyer. Council will also receive the city’s 2018 financial report and hear a proposal for the 2019 mill rate, which is used to calculate property tax amounts. 17-16
