Tax incentives approved for two residential projects

Condos planned for downtown and on former GM property

Two major residential projects planned for downtown St. Catharines and the former GM property on Ontario Street have been approved for tax incentives.

City council approved the tax breaks for 88 James St. and 10 Pleasant Ave. through the city’s community improvement plan (CIP) following a two-hour discussion earlier this month.

Councillors heard the two properties combined will give the city more than $1 million more in tax revenues once they are completed and the 10-year incentive period comes to an end.

“Even in the years when we’re paying out these grants, we will still be receiving between 14 and 35 times more in tax revenue than we currently are,” Mayor Mat Siscoe said. “That is a good news story.”

The city’s CIP gives tax breaks or grants to the private sector with the aim of stimulating investment in the community.

Developers who qualify get a percentage of taxes back, calculated based on the amount of property taxes generated before and after a project is completed.

The property at 10 Pleasant Ave. was a parking lotat the former General Motors site on Ontario Street and is currently bringing in about $4,164 in city taxes annually.

The developers are planning a nine-storey apartment building with 351 units and 14 three-storey townhouses on the site, which will bring the city’s tax revenue up to $715,250 a year.

A staff report said the environmental remediation of the parking lot will cost the developers just less than $8 million and they applied for a brownfield tax increment finance incentive.

That was approved by council in a 9-4 vote. The incentive equals 80 per cent of the difference between pre-and post-development taxes and is for a 10-year-period. It’s valued at $568,869 annually and $5.6 million total.

The property at 88 James St. next to the public library is currently home to the vacant Gord’s Place

restaurant. The plan is for a 30-storey tower with 276 units and commercial space on the ground floor. It does not require any remediation.

The city currently gets $15,028 in taxes, which would increase to $377,305 annually once completed.

Councillors voted 10-3 to approve a tax increment finance incentive for redevelopment costs. The amount of the incentive is equal to 45 per cent of the before and after taxes on the site. The value over 10 years is $163,000 annually or $1.6 million over 10 years.

Resident Ed Smith of A Better Niagara, who has been vocal in his opposition to the city’s distribution of CIPs, told council it should not be using tax dollars for housing at the very top end of the market.

Asked if he believed the developments would move ahead without incentives, Smith said assessment growth is tied to the generalities of the economy, not the CIP.

“There is a gold rush in real estate going on for the last five years. And for us to say that we need these CIPs in order to attract development to our city is buying into the into the dialogue that has been out there so long that … we almost give up our ability on critical fact.”

But Jeff Hurst, chair of Haig Neighbours Association, which includes the former General Motors property, said he believed without the CIP the property at 10 Pleasant Ave. and other brownfields could remain derelict indefinitely.

He said the CIP is the perfect tool to make development on the site a reality as soon as remediation is complete.

“I believe it’s worth the incentive being offered and so many of my neighbours do as well. So I say, humbly, to the mayor and council, let’s use every tool at our disposal, especially the CIP, to support a welcoming, healthy and vibrant community right here in the heart of the city.”

St. Catharines Downtown Association executive director Rachel Braithwaite told council the city needs residential intensification in the downtown and needs to see the empty buildings and contaminated land redeveloped.

She said the city has told developers CIPs are available and they will lose faith in the city if it pulls the incentives away after they’ve made plans.

“They won’t come here, they’ll go to the better offers elsewhere, which means we won’t see our brownfields redeveloped. We won’t see the intensification we need so desperately in our downtown.”

The city staff report said both properties scored more than the 50-point threshold required under the CIP project evaluation system that led staff to recommend they be approved for the incentives.

For the Pleasant Avenue property, that included points for being located in the Ontario and Carlton streets priority neighbourhood, having significant remediation costs, the scale of investment and a density of 525 people per hectare among other features.

The James Street tower scored points that included being in the downtown, the scale of investment, a mixed-used building and having a density of 2,279 people per hectare.

The city is planning on reviewing its CIP program, which was adopted in 2020 after a consultation process, but will keep the current program in place until 2025.