Genosha ownership deadline extended
Work on the former Genosha Hotel has been at a standstill for much of 2016 due to ownership issues. Now, the project’s owner and developer have been given a one-month extension to present a new plan to the city in order to keep their financial incentives to keep the project going.
By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express
The new submission was nothing short of a buzzer beater.
Filed on April 29, Bowood Properties and Richard Senechal, the Genosha Hotel’s current owner, submitted a new ownership agreement to the City of Oshawa, only hours before the council-approved incentives of nearly $1.5 million were set to expire.
“(They) have submitted a revised proposal to the city regarding ownership,” confirms Paul Ralph, the city’s commissioner of development services.
“It’s really a business proposal that gets into things far beyond planning.”
No further details on the new proposal were provided by the city and calls to Bowood were not returned as of The Oshawa Express’ press deadline.
Ralph says the deadline for the incentives has been once again extended, this time to the end of May, to allow for council to hear presentations from the developer and owner on the new proposal.
“It has to be vetted to council, council has to see it and make a decision on it,” Ralph says, noting the matter is slated to come to the development services committee meeting on May 9.
The new agreement is good news for the city, Ralph adds, noting it’s a sign Bowood and Senechal are committed to seeing the project through to completion.
“After council denied the request for an assignment, these two have come back with a proposal on how both of them would work together,” Ralph says.
And for Mayor John Henry, he was confident the two parties would return to the city by the deadline with a plan to move forward.
“I’m happy that they were able to contact us,” Henry says. “I’m looking forward to a great resolution and continued redevelopment of our downtown.”
Through most of 2016, work at the downtown historic landmark has been at a standstill after Bowood pulled its workers when the company was unable to obtain ownership from Senechal.
At a meeting of the development services committee on April 4, it became clear that the final cost of the property was at issue. When work began on the hotel redevelopment last summer, Senechal fronted the cost for the work and he wanted those costs built into the final price tag of the property, something that was a snagging point in any arrangement with Bowood.
Due to the fact that ownership of the hotel was the first stipulation for Bowood to receive the grants and incentives from the city, and despite previous extensions, the deadline was set for April 30 for the two parties to reach some form of an agreement.
The stoppage also isn’t the first issue that has hit the Genosha redevelopment and Henry says it’s about time the project was seen through to the end.
“Everyone knows how important this is to the downtown community, and there’s been a lot of money and time invested to date, a lot of staff time to get to where we are,” he says.
“The Genosha has been going on far too long. It needs to be finished and opened and we need to celebrate that event.”