[SteelTown]

Showdown over Lister

BY NICOLE MACINTYRE

LIUNA is prepared to walk away from the deal to save the Lister Block if the city doesn’t change its conditions.

The city wants a $1-million guarantee that the project will have a second phase by 2017 with 100 retirement home units and 100 condos for seniors — a plan LIUNA pitched to council last winter.

But LIUNA vice-president Joe Mancinelli said the conditions are too restrictive in the face of an unsettled economy.

“We’re prepared to walk away,” he said, noting the union would be crazy to agree to the proposed guarantee. “It’s a penalty.”

Council will decide Monday if the city should buy the Lister Block for $25 million with the help of a $7-million grant from the province. That’s an $18 million net cost to Hamilton.

The city and LIUNA plan to continue negotiations to see if they can come up with a new deal by the critical vote, which many councillors say is too close to call.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger is hopeful the two sides can find a compromise.

“It’s too early to tell,” he said.

“There will still be some back and forth here.”

Mancinelli said he would prefer a lower financial guarantee, in the range of $250,000, but said his bigger concern is the strict language about the size of the second phase.

What happens, he asks, if LIUNA constructs a building with only 99 condos because demand changes in five years?

But finance chief Joe Rinaldo said he followed the direction of council in drafting the agreement. Last February, several councillors said they would only support the city buying the Lister Block if they could be assured LIUNA would deliver on a promise to build a seniors’ home behind the downtown landmark.

“The guarantee in our minds has to be meaningful,” said Rinaldo.

He’s optimistic the city will be able to work out a deal by Monday morning.

But downtown Councillor Bob Bratina said he’s leaning toward opposing the deal even with the proposed guarantee.

“This isn’t nearly restrictive enough,” he said. “I don’t think this is good value for taxpayers.”

But Mancinelli said private investors would jump at the Lister deal, even without the guarantee, if they had the same provincial grant as the city.

“They are risking nothing and gaining everything,” he said.

The city must make a decision on the Lister by June 30 or it will lose the provincial grant.