From the Globe:
REDEVELOPMENT: ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX
Woodbine getting $750-million neighbour
JEFF GRAY
July 18, 2007
Toronto City Council approved last night what may be the city's biggest single development application since amalgamation, a massive $750-million entertainment complex next to the Woodbine Racetrack that proponents say will be an economic boon to a depressed community.
The developers, Woodbine Entertainment Group and Baltimore-based Cordish Co., say the 330,000-square-foot development featuring shops, restaurants, a skating rink, a hotel, a theatre and other attractions, will create 10,000 jobs.
"It's going to turn Rexdale into Rosedale," said Councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North, the ward that includes the site). The "mixed use" development, which will eventually include condos, would be built in phases over the next few years.
Lawyer Steve Diamond, who represents the developers, said the Cordish has a long history in urban renewal and has won awards for the design of its developments. "They are an established player ... [with] an excellent reputation for high-quality work," Mr. Diamond said, adding that the Woodbine project would be an attractive regional tourism centre, just 1½ kilometres from Pearson International Airport.
In addition to the jobs and economic benefits, he said, the project's amenities - including a hockey rink and canals that would freeze for skating in winter - would be open to the public.
But the project, called Woodbine Live!, is not without controversy. With pressure by a coalition of labour activists, local groups and left-leaning city councillors, the developers have agreed to work to ensure a share of the jobs goes to residents near the site at Highway 27 and Rexdale Boulevard in Etobicoke.
While the development proposal includes a clause about hiring locally, Councillor Howard Moscoe (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence), a left-leaning ally of Mayor David Miller, said he had secured an extra agreement that would go further to ensure that a chunk of the jobs goes to people in the neighbourhood.
He wouldn't disclose the details yesterday, but said the deal is similar to those he had brokered with other developments that helped ensure the jobs were advertised to local residents first.
"It's a win-win-win-win," Mr. Moscoe said of the development.
John Cartwright, president of the Toronto and York Region District Labour Council, said the pressure on Woodbine was necessary to ensure the local community benefited from development.
"They've been basically saying to Woodbine, if you're going to have this huge expansion and tell everybody, 'Oh this is a great economic development thing,' you're creating all these jobs, then they'd better be paying living wages and they'd better be jobs that are offered to local people," Mr. Cartwright said.
He acknowledged that members of UNITE HERE, the hotel workers' union, were also interested in organizing the employees at the developers' hotel, or ensuring they are guaranteed the right to unionize if they choose. (The union already represents the racetrack's food-service workers.)
Mr. Cartwright said the deal to hire locally was a "significant victory" for the community, an ethnically diverse and economically depressed area.
Left-leaning Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul's) said he was satisfied at the commitments made by the developers to hire locally and pay fair wages, and allow unions to organize.
"There will be union organizing going on. Of course there will be," Mr. Mihevc said. "We don't want McJobs."
AoD