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Originally Posted by itom 987
240glt, I would totally agree with you if the deal consisted of only the arena itself. But the fact that Katz has helped build Stantec Tower, JW Marriott hotel, City of Edmonton tower and the Ice District means he has been living up to his side of the deal. Will the deal make Katz a lot of money? It looks like it, but Katz has taken on lot of risk as well. Lets be honest here, most developers don't have the guts do what Katz is doing in a place like Edmonton.
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That's all fine & good but it still doesn't change the fact that the arena was in large part financed by taxpayers.
The ice district buildings aren't generating any money from the CRL yet but of course they will in time, but I'd consider the backroom deal to move the city offices to the Katz tower not such a good deal for the city. Aside for the lack of transparency in the deal, the resulting spike in downtown vacancy has dropped the value of adjacent properties by as much as 20%, and of course that directly affects CRL revenue. Now hopefully that's temporary, but the fact is that the way the deal was structured, the primary goal was to inject some desperately needed life into the downtown, not to get the best deal for Edmontonians.