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.
The lease also includes details of the funds Therme will pay to the government. Between 2034 and 2044, the province said it expects Therme to pay it a total of $47 million in rent and $37 million in maintenance fees.
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, it will also pay a so-called performance rent, which the government calculates could be an extra $2.07 million per year.
The government has calculated it expects to receive $1.1 billion in nominal rent payments from Therme.
The lease also confirms the government agreed in its lease to provide Therme with at least 1,800 parking spaces.
— more to come