Grants approved for downtown condo project

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

Councillors have pushed residential development in downtown Oshawa as a priority for some time, and now they’re putting their money where their mouths are.

At council’s meeting on June 25, the final one ahead of summer recess, they approved a grant package for Atria Developments, currently planning an 18-storey, 370 unit apartment building at 80 Bond Street East, that waives an assortment of fees and development charges, while also providing a break on the development’s taxes for 16 years. In total, the 16-year cost for the grant is approximately $3.4 million.

According to Paul Ralph, the city’s commissioner of development services, the normal incentive grant program is nine years, which allows for the city to collect property taxes on an increasing scale in the years following completion. However, council has the ability to change the grant on a case by case basis. A similar program was given for the development of the Holiday Inn Express and Suites located at 67 Simcoe Street North over a 13-year period.

However, a staff report recommending the grant’s approval notes the Atria development is taking the costly step of installing three levels of underground parking, estimated in the amount of $19.9 million, something the city is looking for in the downtown.

“That’s what we want to see from an urban design perspective downtown, not at-grade parking, or at-grade parking lots, and the density that goes along with it,” Ralph says.

Aside from the extended time frame, the other grant approvals are fairly standard for downtown Oshawa developments. According to the city’s development charge rules, it is standard that they do not apply to developments within the city’s Central Business District, and the same goes for cash-in-lieu requirements for parkland.

The total grant figure for the Increased Assessment Grant, set at $3,422,640 is based off $70 million post-construction value of the property. Ralph explains that in the years following completion, the property taxes, estimated in the amount of $213,915, will be paid, following which the city will reimburse half of that to the developer each year if certain criteria are met.

The reimbursement is stipulated on the fact that the project must have a foundation laid by the end of March 2020, and completed by Aug. 31, 2022.

In the staff recommendation, it notes that the grant will more than likely lead to increased revenues down the line.

“The increase in the budget to fund the grant will be more than offset over time by the increased taxation revenue received from the development,” the report reads.

The development is the second phase of the Atria project, which completed its first 12-storey, 239 unit building with ground floor commercial space last year at 100 Bond Street East. That building also received an Increased Assessment Grant totalling approximately $1.67 million over the next 10 years.

In a letter to support their request, Atria pointed to a study they commissioned to analyze the economic impact of the project at 80 Bond Street East. That study, completed by Barry Lyon Consultants, states the project would bring in approximately $152 million from initial capital expenditures to the city with a direct GDP impact of $70 million. Along with that, it could result in $112 million in indirect economic activity, $334 million in collective economic benefits and bring 538 new residents to the downtown.

“The incentives the City of Oshawa can provide to 80 Bond Street would be a modest investment compared to the long-term benefits the project would offer, not only in terms of the more tangible economic benefits of the estimated $152 million, but also the incremental gains that downtown Oshawa would achieve toward establishing a vibrant and ‘complete’ urban growth centre as envisioned by the city and province,” writes Hans Jain, president of Atria.