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No ‘deep, dark secret’ in downtown Hamilton venues deal: Mayor Fred Eisenberger
(Hamilton Spectator, Teviah Moro, Mar 26 2022)

A private consortium the city has tapped to refurbish and operate Hamilton’s downtown entertainment venues will not pay property taxes.

That tax status is a term of the confidential master agreement the city struck with the group last year.

The exemption is allowed under provincial legislation, but the deal’s decades-long confidentiality provision invites suspicion, Coun. Brad Clark says.

“We’re wide open to accusations from the public that these are sweetheart deals and all of the other allegations.”

Last July, council approved a lease agreement — for a guaranteed 30 years and as long as 49 — with the Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group (HUPEG) to renovate and operate the arena, convention centre and concert hall.

City officials celebrated the deal as a way to save taxpayers $155 million in operating and capital costs over 30 years.

In exchange for investing tens of millions into revamping the city-owned venues, the consortium also picks up three municipal properties.

They include the York Boulevard parkade, a parking lot behind it on Vine Street and another parcel at York and Caroline Street North. A long-term, incremental tax break is also tied to the development of those parcels.

HUPEG — which includes the Carmen’s Group, labour union LIUNA, Meridian Credit Union and Paletta Group — aims to build mixed-use residential highrises and spur the creation of shops and eateries in a rejuvenated corridor.

On Wednesday, city staff told councillors the deal’s master agreement would remain confidential for the life of the lease.

“So theoretically, this could be an existing relationship forever and the public never gets to see what the agreement is,” Clark said.

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