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The future is once again uncertain for the former Capital Pointe site.
On Friday, Regina city council turned down a request by Smith Street Lands Ltd., to cancel property tax penalties on the lot that total nearly $700,000.
Smith Street Lands has said its deal to purchase the lot in January was contingent on that tax relief.
For years, the empty plot of land at 1971 Albert St., right on the corner of Victoria Avenue, has been the target of potential buyers attempting to purchase and develop the land.
It seemed to have a future when Smith Street Lands Ltd., put in a request to buy the lot. However, the company wanted the city to waive tax penalties of $629,526.60 that have been accruing since 2018.
City council was set to vote on the exemption Wednesday, but that was postponed for a private meeting so the company could pitch its vision for the space.
Council made its decision after Friday’s private meeting, voting 10-1 to keep the taxes in place.
Coun. Dan LeBlanc came out strongly against the proposed tax relief during the meeting, stressing that taxes apply to anyone.
“Taxes are taxes, and taxes are owing in a tough time with COVID, whether you’re a developer or a single mom, so I don’t think we (should) give the break to them,” he said.
He also believes the company would be capable of affording the tax.
“The purchase of this property is something that Smith Street Lands would like; it’s not a need of theirs. They have told us that they have enough money to pursue this want if they so desire, but simply that it wouldn’t make business sense for them, in that it would undermine the profitability of the project,” he said.
Coun. John Findura, the only dissenting vote, believed it would make sense in the long run to get the property sold to recover earlier costs from the site.
“We could be sitting on this thing for a long time. We have already been sitting on this thing for a very long time, and we’re not going to recoup any of this. We might not even get the price that we were looking for,” he said.
“We’re hoping to gain something.”
The prospective owners already had received the city’s permission to turn the land into a temporary parking lot for a year before moving ahead with their development.
