City exploring options to recover $33-million from Convention Centre expansion

An image shows a possible design for the expansion of the Winnipeg Convention Centre. (image courtesy www.canadianarchitect.com)

The city will explore options how to get back a $33-million loan the Winnipeg Convention Centre used to expand the facility.

Members of the Mayor’s Executive Policy Committee have ordered city staff to come up with a plan for repayment.

The options include delaying or scaling back part of the convention centre’s expansion plans, asking the bank to defer interest and principal on the loan, or adding a new business to the SHED district, using  property taxes from that site.

The money was supposed to be paid back through property taxes and additional business generated from a hotel on the Carlton Inn property that was never constructed.

The True North Square proposal would generate millions of dollars in future property taxes.

CentreVenture told the Mayor's Executive Policy Committee the development would bring in $4.7 million dollars in taxes.

That plan proposes a hotel and office tower for a surface parking lot at 225 Carlton Street and a residential building on the former Carlton Inn site across the street.

True North recently completed a purchase agreement with CentreVenture for the Carlton Inn land.

An appraisal process to determine the price of that deal is underway.