Olivia Chow’s deal for WNBA team: $1 a year for $10 million of land
· Toronto Sun
A committee led by Mayor Olivia Chow is likely to sign off on a 40-year lease for Toronto’s WNBA team, which would pay $1 a year for a parcel of land the city may value at $10 million – or more.
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A report, prepared for Chow’s powerful executive committee by the heads of City Hall’s parks and recreation division and its corporate real estate management arm, recommends the Toronto Tempo be given a city-owned surface parking lot at 701 Fleet St.– located northeast of Strachan Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd. W. – to turn into a practice facility.
The report pitches the creation of the basketball facility and an associated public park as an “in-kind consideration” that justifies leasing that land for four decades for just $1 a year. The lease can be extended by up to two 20-year intervals, but at market rates.
In the fifth year of the lease, the expansion WNBA team would be expected to make a single lump sum payment of $2 million, or begin making 35 annual payments of $100,000, to help pay for city programming at the site.
The deal would also see taxpayers trade about a half-million dollars in annual parking revenue for $800,000 in new operating costs each year.
“The proposal aligns with council-directed priorities including support for women’s sports facilities, advancing gender equity in sport, facility access and equity, integration with (the) Exhibition Place master plan, and park washroom enhancement,” the report says.
The report says the Tempo would build a 60,000-sq.-ft practice facility, as well as a park “at no capital cost to the city, including outdoor basketball courts, public washrooms, pathways, seating, landscaping, trees, shade elements and other public amenities, with the final design to be informed by community and indigenous engagement.”
However, the city would be on the hook for $800,000 a year for operating costs for the park, and has agreed to “reimburse the tenant for costs associated with bringing the park to a condition suitable for public parkland use.”
The practice facility itself would have recreation programming accessible by the public, most of it in the WNBA off-season from November to March, the report says.
Reports have pegged the cost of that facility, to be borne by the Tempo, at $100 million.
The parking lot in question is near the Princes’ Gates and not far from the 8,000-seat Coca-Cola Coliseum, where the Tempo play their home games.
Development of the land would see Exhibition Place’s parking revenue fall by about $491,000 in 2027, the report says. While the report says the lot is being operated “on an interim basis,” it also says it has been used for parking since 1980.
‘Leadership in women’s sport’: Mayor
The report doesn’t list a market price for 701 Fleet St., but the executive committee heard last year that City Hall collectively values the land of 10 “underperforming” parking lots at more than $100 million .
The Fleet St. lot could be worth a great deal more than $10 million, sitting just steps from Coronation Park and condo towers on Fort York Blvd. The Toronto Sun has asked the City of Toronto for its valuation of the Fleet St. lot but has yet to get a response.
While the executive committee needs to vote on the plan on Tuesday, with a final vote by City Council expected late this month, press releases from April make it sound like Chow sees this as a done deal .
“We’re partnering with the Toronto Tempo to turn an underused site into a world-class facility that serves both professional athletes and the public,” Chow said, according to statements from both the city and the basketball club.
“With year-round access to recreation, new park space and inclusive programming, this project delivers real benefits for residents while strengthening Toronto’s leadership in women’s sport.”
The Tempo are owned by billionaire Larry Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Sports Ventures. Kilmer’s 25% stake in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment was recently bought out by Rogers Communications for a reported $4.35 billion .
The report frames the WNBA facility as the latest in a series of similar sports venue deals on city-owned land, including Lamport Stadium, the OVO Athletic Centre and the Ford Performance Centre.
Those latter two buildings, practice facilities for the Raptors and Maple Leafs, opened decades after those teams were established, and on arguably far less desirable land, in plain view of the Gardiner Expressway and a rail yard, respectively. Lamport Stadium, meanwhile, was built 50 years ago on what then had only recently been a women’s prison.
The committee report follows controversy at another city-owned sports asset, Weston Lions Arena, which is in limbo despite a well publicized deal with MLSE.
While politicians, including Premier Doug Ford, have said the deal has saved the hockey programming at the venerable arena, details have yet to be made public and people close to the rink’s hockey community have told the Sun they fear there’s no way it’ll open this fall.