http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2011/02/09/17208561.html
City considers selling Corus Quay building
By JONATHAN JENKINS, City Hall Bureau
Last Updated: February 9, 2011 1:27pm
The time is ripe to sell the Corus Quay building on Toronto's portlands and recoup the $159.5 million cost of construction, city staff report recommends.
"(Toronto Portlands Corporation) advisors predict that the project can now be sold for an amount considerably in excess of the project development cost," the staff report, which was briefly placed on city council's agenda Tuesday and then removed by Coun. Michael Thompson, says.
TPLCs real estate advisors believe there is "strong demand amongst institutional investors for a commercial building with the characteristics of the project," the report says.
Corus Quay opened in the fall of 2010 at the foot of Sherbourne St. and Lake Ontario and is home to the headquarters of Corus Entertainment and 1,100 workers.
"There is the possibility of a sale," Thompson said Tuesday. "However there is some information that needs to be brought forward in relation to the report and we're going to have to have some discussion.
"That's the reason I had to pull it (from the agenda)."
Thompson said Build Toronto, the city's arm's-length real estate development corporation, will provide "service" to TPLC to assist with the sale.
"I don't know what the full amounts are," he said.
The Corus Quay development, now surrounded by Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Common, is the first commercial building to open in Toronto's redeveloping East Bayfront.
To build it, Toronto Portlands borrowed $128.5 million for the city and got another $12.5 million contribution from Waterfront Toronto.
But because TPLC can't borrow from anyone else but the city and the construction loan is coming due on March 31, the corporation has proposed putting the 500,000 square foot, eight-story building on the market.