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A supporter of the arts, Teron was one of the founding trustees of the National Arts Centre. In 2003, he proposed building a world-class concert hall for free if the city would donate land on Elgin Street.
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I forgot about that. So what happened, Teron made a proposal; let me develop the land and I'll give you a free $20 million dollar concert hall. The City said "hey, great idea! Let's have a competition to see who wants to buy the land for peanuts and allow us to build a concert hall out of our own pocket!!" After a year, bureaucrats rejected the free concert hall from the local developer and chose the winning proposal based on a points system that fits in their "box" without consulting the public. The winning Toronto based company bought the land for $6.6 million and the agreement was that space would be reserved for a concert hall, funded by the government and donations ($6.5 mil. province, $6.3 mil. Feds, $12 mil. donations). After years of trying to raise the necessary money, the campaign fell short so Morguard instead gave a good rate to Ottawa Tourism.
In summary, the City rejected a deal that would have seen them ahead by $15+ mil. (not counting the property taxes lost by leaving an empty lot for 10 years) in exchange for a good lease for Ottawa Tourism.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/teron-proposes-major-ottawa-concert-hall-1.409417
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/developer-wants-public-debate-on-150-elgin-fate-1.467856
http://www.obj.ca/index.php/article/city-making-space-ottawa-tourism-150-elgin
This wasn't supposed to be a rant against Morguard. At the end of the day, I think they built a quality building that has enhanced the skyline. They've also done a stellar job restoring Grant House. This was about further exposing the City's ridiculous process that greatly lags in logic and public engagement, something we've seen with the concert hall fiasco, Stage 1 and 2 of the O-Train expansion and now the central library.