WalMart Has Become Part Of The Culture Of The City

So why shouldn't the be part of Mayor Miller's dream of a waterfrong Utopia?

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Walmart on Waterfront Fiasco in Toronto

David Miller, despite declaring the Waterfront his bailiwick and although he is on the Toronto Waterfront Redevelopment Corporation seems to have no opposition to having a Walmart built on his beautiful waterfront.
In 2002, while Mel was Mayor, an RFP call went out to invite companies to bid on the establishment of a major studio in the Portlands. The right to build this was awarded to Pinewood Shepperton, one of the world's largest studios with hits such as Batman to their credit.
For some reason, unknown to the hoi polloi, David Miller came to office, this award was quashed and the RFP was reopened in 2004.

A common practice of Miller's....reneging on contracts.

In this case Pinewood was ignored in favour of a Toronto developer: Toronto Film Studios then owned by Rose Corporation. While the details of this agreement are secret, it can be assumed that some sort of land lease was arranged probably on favourable terms to TFS to incentivize them to do a deal.
But, wait, I'm not done yet.
Although as late as mid-October 2006 David Miller was claiming credit for the construction of the studio, it appears that there was other economic activity at work.
On October 20, 2006, Toronto Film Studios announced that they had sold a half interest in the Portlands Studio site to Big Box Walmart Developer, Smart Centres for $14 million.
Note - sold a half interest in a land lease from the City to build a studio for $14 mill...........
...... and there's going to be a Walmart there instead?
Is this so that Michael Douglas and Danny Devito can drop in when shooting next door to buy a nifty outfit to go out for dinner in?
Wait, there's more.....
Then on October 24, 2006 it was announced that Toronto Film Studios had been sold to a Limited Partnership. The developer who put the studio deal together seems to have cashed out.
No blame can be attached to the businesses for doing what businesses do.
But residents can sure as hell yell blue murder for letting this happen.
Was David Miller asleep? Does he want a Walmart on the Waterfront? Why was the original deal with Pinewood thrown away in favour of an agreement with a company whose core business is building malls, not studios? What are the financial details of the transaction - exactly how much money did the developers put in
and how much did the company gain by the city's negligence?
This is serious stuff - it looks like, at best, that senior city officials, including the Mayor, have been played for fools.
And we don't need fools running the city, but we're getting used to it.

posted by Tor Poli @ 1:30 PM