Council to explore policies for leasing city properties

City councillors yesterday decided that the council should examine keeping its options open and making properties that the city owns profitable after a discussion on possibly leasing the city’s Constabu-lary Training Centre on Water Street. 

At the council’s first statutory meeting of the year, the possibility of leasing the building was broached after it was revealed that an investor had expressed interest in leasing the property for approximately 25 years.  Waterfront property is in high demand by the oil and gas industry.

After the subject came up, Councillor Patricia Chase-Green asked the council if an expression of interest was put out publicly in the media or if the person that expressed interest in the property had been handpicked. She noted that while this individual, who was not named, offered to pay $700,000 per month for the location, if they decided to advertise in the public someone else may propose to pay $1.1 million. As a result, she suggested that expressions of interest should be placed in the newspapers so all interested persons can come forward.