The Ford government has finally released the terms of the lease it signed in 2022 with the Austrian company responsible for building a massive waterfront spa at Ontario Place, including rental payments that will be based on the company’s revenues.
Infrastructure Ontario published the lease it signed with Therme on Thursday, with the government touting the benefits it claims the deal will bring for taxpayers and underscoring the fact the public land has been lent to the spa company, not sold.
Details of the lease, first reported by Global News last year, show the government has agreed on a 75-year deal with Therme, with the option to extend the deal by a further 20 years. The lease is set to begin in 2025.
As the government had previously highlighted, the deal won’t allow Therme to run a shopping mall, casino or condo towers at the Ontario Place site.
The company is also set to pay full property taxes to the City of Toronto.
What Therme will pay
The government estimates Therme will pay close to $2 billion over the course of the 95-year lease, including rental payments and maintenance payments for the land.
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Therme is expected to pay $1.1 billion in rent payments while it runs a waterpark and spa on the site, and it is also committed to a further $855 million in maintenance payments to the government.
Therme is tied to two rent payments, the lease suggests.
The first, minimum rent, will be 3.5 per cent of the assessed value of Ontario Place, indexed to inflation– estimated to $1.95 million in 2032.
In years when the company brings in higher revenues, beginning in 2034, it will also pay a so-called performance rent, which the government calculates could be an extra $2.07 million per year.
Between 2034 and 2044, the government expects Therme to pay $84 million — $47 million in rent and $37 million in maintenance payments.
What the government will provide
The lease also confirms the government agreed in its lease to provide Therme with at least 1,800 parking spaces.
— more to come
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