By IAN ROSS
Sault Ste. Marie politicians and residents will see the final renderings this month for a proposed $54 million waterfront tourist attraction.
No groundbreaking has taken place on the 14-acre St. Mary’s River site and the city has grown impatient about the lack of progress on the Borealis biodome project.
In late June, city councillors gave Philip Garforth 14 days to provide written confirmation on what private investment can be expected for the high-profile project, expected to be Northern Ontario’s biggest tourism venue.
Their requests included assurances that his project team of PCL Constructors and Carlson Hotels Worldwide remains intact.
Garforth says he won’t be making any public appearances until August 13.
In a letter sent by his lawyer to city officials, Garforth is on holidays until late July and will appear before councillors this month to deliver a formal presentation on the project’s status.
‘Borealis’ has already been approved for $15 million in provincial funding, but it’s made available on a staggered basis provided there is regular reporting by the city through information provided by the developer.
When reached by phone, Garforth refused comment on the financial status and construction timelines of Borealis, but told Northern Ontario Business he has submitted all the requested documentation on the private financing to the City of Sault Ste. Marie for review. New York’s Commercial Capital Corporation is the identified U.S. financier.
Tourism Sault Ste. Marie director Ian McMillan says Garforth has provided some information but the city still requires more specifics from the developer than has been provided to date.
“It’s hoped by all parties that on this Aug. 13 presentation that additional information will be forthcoming.”
Garforth, who moved to the Sault from Toronto this past spring to personally oversee the project, say he’s “fed up” with some local criticism over the two-year delays with the project. And if it keeps up, he might just walk away.
“I’ve got $7 million (personally) invested in this project. I wish people would stop harping on it and let me do what I’ve got to do,” says Garforth. “I believe in the project...this is the right place for it. But if the people don’t like me, the project is going to go ahead, it’s just going to go ahead somewhere else.”
Garforth says construction will proceed once the city completes the environmental abatement on the Gateway site.
City planner Don McConnell says the environmental cleanup will start once Garforth’s submits his final site plans.
The Gateway property -- part of which was once a scrap yard -- contains heavy metals according to environmental testing completed last year. Fortunately there’s no contaminants migrating off the site, says McConnell.
But the city can’t begin a very detailed site-specific risk assessment until they see the final renderings of Borealis to determine if there’s any health risks associated with the development. “In order to do that kind of detailed assessment, we need to know what is it that Mr. Garforth is proposed to do,” says McConnell.
It may involve some soil removal.
A similar risk assessment approach was used with the development of the neighbouring provincial charity casino and the Roberta Bondar provincial building.
McConnell says the $80,000 cost to conduct the risk assessment will be drawn from the $1.8 million sale of the city property to Garforth.
