SASKATOON – A Calgary-based real estate developer will receive tax incentives related to a future mixed use site in Saskatoon’s River Landing after city council approved the measures Monday during its regular meeting. The body granted Triovest Reality Advisors Inc. a five-year tax abatement on the site’s phases and a grant equal to the yearly property taxes on a public plaza that’s part of the group’s construction plan.
The roughly $300 million project is expected to contain a hotel, residential, commercial and office space. The tax break covers portions of the project and will cost the city roughly $4.7 million according to officials.
Saskatoon Mayor Don Atchison stressed that the abatement “is the same tax concessions that everyone else would receive in the downtown area.” He added that the hotel would not receive the tax incentive.
As for the plaza, Atchison equated it to someone having a small public park in their front yard.
“I don’t think that they would anticipate that they should have to pay the property taxes on that portion,” said Atchison after the council meeting.
“I think that they would expect to pay their property taxes on their home.”
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Ward 6 Coun. Charlie Clark saw the two issues in a different light and voted against both of the measures. He said the city and public have “invested well over ninety million dollars into River Landing which has added value” to the area.
“I don’t see it as the same as a downtown parcel of land that we’re trying to attract development to now,” said Clark after the meeting.
“Because we’ve already made all of that other investment and because there were certain expectations in the original agreement.”
Now that council has passed the tax breaks, Triovest can move onto shoring up the remaining measures needed before beginning construction, according to Blair Sinclair, its executive vice president of investments and development.
“Once we have all those pieces in, then our application to proceed with our permitting can start,” said Sinclair, who spoke before council Monday.
“Knowing that you have these in place, it’s all part of an overall approval process,” he added.
Sinclair said he expects ground to break on the project later in the summer. The company will first develop a parkade on the site.