The man behind plans to redevelop the former Northern Breweries building on Lorne Street into condominiums is unhappy — to say the least — that his application for support from the city died at budget time.
In an interview, Greg Oldenburg said the fact his business case wasn't even discussed before falling to the wayside borders on “contempt” for private developers like him who spend a lot of money and time preparing the proposals.
"The message is, don't have a vision, because city hall will kill it immediately," Oldenburg said. "This city has way more problems than I know what to do with. I was born and raised here, but there doesn't seem like there's any good reason to stick around.
"The people operating the store seem to be in conflict with those who are trying to develop the city in a way that is progressive and modern."
Oldenburg has been working the last few years to turn the old building into the Brewer Lofts, a 50-unit condominium development. He sought $9.5 million through a mixture of grants and tax exemptions using programs designed to encourage downtown development and the city's brownfield strategy, as well as a personal loan.
While his request far exceeded the budgets for the programs, he argued his project would accomplish the goals of the programs for several years. And he said the loan would only become a reality once construction started, and would be repaid within a year of the building's completion.
The $23-million project had 85 per cent of its financing in place from outside firms, he said. But that financing was contingent on him receiving the interest-free loan.
Oldenburg said by ignoring his and other proposals, the city was going to miss out on a major opportunity to attract private investment to downtown.
"Another 33 proposals didn't make it through the budget, either, so it's not just me, it's several land owners and businesses that represent, I think, $63 million in private investment into the town that would provide the city, on a 10-year basis, almost $5 million in new taxes," he said.
"I'm not sure what to think. I'm completely confused because planning staff has provided and promoted these programs and the only reason I purchased the property was because these programs existed. This is not a good result for me or anybody else in the city."
He said the city was wasting money on planning staff, who work with developers to prepare applications under the programs. He was sharply critical of the way his business case was prepared, arguing that it just showed the daunting $9.5-million total, without explaining the new revenue the project would bring. The property tax revenue from his building would have increased from $9,000 a year to more than $300,000.
"They didn't describe or illustrate the new tax base the city was going to receive from this private investment," he said. "They presented it in a way that I knew it was going to be turned down. I knew as soon as I saw the business case last week that it was going to get voted down.
"I and others had decided to invest in downtown Sudbury and the city is not fulfilling the very mandate they had promoted to myself and also to the provincial government, which requires cities to put certain plans in place to address growth and sprawl and general costs."
He said he had an agreement in place with a southern Ontario beverage company to take over the entire bottom floor commercial space, a deal that would have brought with it 40 new full-time jobs and 25 part-time ones. But none of that will happen now.
"They said they could have a Northern Ontario manufacturing facility to support their efforts in the south. They would have become a local business, almost with a local brand, for the North," Oldenburg said. "They were looking to purchase all the commercial space, which represented about $3.5 million, 20,000 feet, and create manufacturing space, a food program — restaurants and that sort of thing — and the chance to spend another $7 million to outfit the facility to get it up and running."
He was critical of councillors who failed to debate his proposal, planning staff he said led him through a long an ultimately pointless process, and of a city council that ignored their own downtown masterplan and decided to build a new arena on the Kingsway “in the middle of nowhere."
"With the arena and now this, they've stated what was planned was irrelevant,” Oldenburg said. "The fact they didn't even debate my business case is ... I mean, why even bother? This is the most high-profile project in the city, aside from the arena. I don't get it. I absolutely don't get it. A number of people have lost confidence in how this city operates.
"Why even bother going through the charade of this whole thing, without a result? It's almost contempt either from council or staff that despite doing everything they asked us to do, me and the others, that, on a basic level, nothing is going to happen," he said. "If any of the councillors, or planning staff, has a better idea for this property — because we created the highest and best use for this facility — then I would be happy to have them come over here and tell me how that would be done."
