Milroy conversion gets OK
City's decision caused councillor 'sleepless nights'
Lori Coolican, The StarPhoenix
Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2008
At least one city councillor said it was the hardest decision they've made as a group.
Faced by several rows of worried senior citizens in the public gallery, a majority of city councillors nevertheless agreed Monday night to approve a local developer's application to convert the Milroy Apartments, a downtown highrise, into condominiums.
"It's caused me some sleepless nights," Coun. Gord Wyant said before voting to approve the application. Four councillors -- Charlie Clark, Bob Pringle, Pat Lorje and Darren Hill -- voted to turn it down.
The building's future owner, Viking Developments, recently told civic officials it intended to retain ownership of 40 units in the 156-suite building and offer them for rent as one-year leases to some of the current long-term tenants, for up to four years, if the conversion was approved.
The rent will be "based on market rates for similar suites in the downtown core, "and subject to arbitration by a third party if the tenants disagree with any proposed increase," according to a proposal delivered to the city last November.
That's "far better rent protection" than the tenants would get if city council denied the conversion, argued Viking's lawyer, Doug Hodson, adding the company intends to retain the 40 units as rentals beyond the four years.
The building is in need of expensive renovations such as window replacements, air conditioning upgrades and fire sprinkler installation. Meanwhile its current owner, Kabo Developments, has raised rents twice in the past year.
Hodson warned council that if the conversion is not approved, "Kabo Developments can do whatever it wishes with the rent . . . whatever it thinks it can get out of the market."
The final decision on the proposed conversion rested with city council because the building contains more than 100 units. The developers' plan appears to have won the support of civic staff before Monday's meeting.
"In the view of the administration, this is a reasonable proposal to address the displacement challenges faced by those residents of the Milroy who may be most affected by a conversion of the building," community services department officials wrote in an unsigned report received by council.
"It should be noted that the applicant's proposed four-year lease arrangement for 40 suites will not be enforceable by the City of Saskatoon," they warned elsewhere in the report.
"Once final condominium approval is issued, which may be sometime in 2008, the City of Saskatoon has no enforcement action to take."
Tenants told council they don't have any confidence Viking will keep its word, arguing the 40 units set aside for them could be any units in the building, which would force them to move anyway.
In four years the apartment vacancy rate in the city could be just as bad as it is now, argued Helen Weigel, a Milroy resident for 17 years.
"The bottom line is that the proposal fails to address the security of tenants in this market," she said. "There's no security here."
The city's development services branch received applications to convert 1,517 existing rental units to condominiums in 2007 -- more than the previous 10 years combined -- while the vacancy rate for rental apartments in the city plunged from 3.2 per cent to 0.6 per cent, according to the report.
n the central district of the city, where the Milroy is located -- which includes the downtown, City Park, the central industrial district, Caswell Hill, most of Riversdale and part of King George -- the city received applications to convert 473 units to condos last year.
That represents more than a quarter of the existing rental stock in the district, which totals 1,678 units. Even with 40 of the Milroy's suites retained as rentals for the next four years, the rental market in the central district will shrink by seven per cent as a result of the conversion, the report states.
Rentals make up 80 per cent of all housing in the central district. Recent statistics from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation showed a vacancy rate of one per cent in the area last October, compared to 4.7 per cent a year earlier.
Milroy tenants, many of whom are over 70 years of age and coping with limited mobility and health issues, had been pressing city council to deny Viking's request since they first learned of the conversion plan last spring, appearing at council and committee meetings and sending numerous letters and a petition to City Hall.
"I have not had a good night's sleep since that ominous flyer was slipped under my door," wrote Cheryll Woodbury, who moved into the building after selling her last home in 2006.
"There are very few residents of the Milroy who are in the financial position to buy a condominium in the building. This was made quite evident by the response of the larger group of the Milroy residents when the developer presented his conversion proposal and the prices of the condominiums," she wrote, referring to an Oct. 30 meeting with tenants.
"Their collective response was one of shock and anger. The developer's insensitivity to the financial status of the people he was addressing was almost insulting and disrespectful."
[email protected]
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008
It was very tough to watch this vote on city council last night. This is not a decision that I could of made. My thoughts go out to those seniors that have been affected.
Prev
Linear Mode
