The group behind the development of Saskatoon’s $200-million River Landing megaproject has passed the rigours of a city-ordered audit and will be able to proceed if it receives council approval today.
Phoenix Management Inc., a subsidiary of Karim Nasser’s Victory Majors Investments Corp., has conditional financing totalling $62.5 million and provided “plausible support,” according to independent auditor Deloitte & Touche, of the ability to bring the hotel-office-condo project to grade level, a city report to council says.
The city solicitor also approved the transfer of interest from Lake Placid Developments to the new group, the report says.
City council, at a special meeting today, will be asked to approve the agreement, paving the way for the company to pay the $5 million outstanding for the land and begin to line up contractors for a highly anticipated groundbreaking next spring.
“It’s a big step,” said Nasser, the retired engineer and philanthropist who revived the once-dead project earlier this year. “We will proceed right away (to purchase the land). The sooner the better because that’s the only way we can deal with a project of that size.”
Saskatoon-based Victory Majors, backed by a group of unnamed local investors, last week bought out Calgary-based Lake Placid Developments and provided last-second documentation saying it has the wherewithal to build the project — a cornerstone riverfront development on Parcel Y in the city’s south downtown.
The project, which Nasser estimated will take three years to complete, has to be the exact same one pitched by Lake Placid and approved by the city — a complex located across Second Avenue from the Remai Arts Centre that would include a hotel, residential condo tower and two office-retail buildings surrounding a public plaza and pool.
City manager Murray Totland said the city review is as important as meeting last week’s drop dead date to submit documentation.
“Until we had completed this and come up with positive result, it was still not definite,” he said. “If approved by council, this gets the project to the point where (the Nasser group) can start thinking about the rest of the project.”
Approval at the special council meeting is a massive step in the development of the south downtown, which has struggled to secure major private development despite a large public investment in River Landing, Totland said.
“This could be a turning point for not only the south downtown but the whole downtown plan,” he said. “This provides the impetus to turn development momentum. This just might be what we need to really get things (moving) along here.
“This is a significant day for Saskatoon.”
The approval paves the way for more investment, Nasser said.
Financing is always contingent upon ownership of the property, he said, and the conditional financing the company has lined up will come into place once the land is secured.
“From my experience in development and so on all one needs is normally the property or something equivalent to the property,” he said. “The most important point is to have the property available so you can use that as your downpayment.”
The company’s silent investment partners will be revealed in due course as the development proceeds, Nasser said.
“They’re very well known,” he said.
“You will be surprised when you hear their names.”
dhutton@thestarphoenix.com
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