Ford government releases details of controversial 95-year lease with Therme Canada

The Ford government has revealed details of its 95-year lease with Therme Canada as part of its redevelopment of Ontario Place.

The controversial lease agreement for what is described as a European-style bathing centre on the western part of Ontario Place is for 75 years with a 20-year option to extend. The province has the right to terminate the lease after 10 years but must give five years’ notice.

Under the terms of the deal, Therme won’t be allowed to operate any other business on the Ontario Place site, such as a casino or shopping mall.

The lease requires a minimum of 1,800 parking spaces to be built while the Ford government has proposed 2,500 spaces to “meet demand for all users and tenants.” Of those spaces, 1,600 would be dedicated to Therme and shared with Live Nation.

Premier Doug Ford has agreed in a deal with the City of Toronto to consider moving the parking to nearby Exhibition Place, rather than in a garage under the new Ontario Science Centre.

Under the terms of the lease, the parking facility must be located 650 metres from the “Entrance Pavilion.” No final decisions have yet been made on the parking location, according to Infrastructure Ontario president and CEO Michael Lindsay .

If the government doesn’t meet its parking obligations, it will have to pay Therme $5 per parking space per day once the facility is open. Lindsay noted in a media briefing about the lease that it stipulates the spots can be up to 650 metres away from the facility, so there are other surface lots in the area that could be used temporarily.

The lease requires Therme to pay 100 per cent of property taxes to the City of Toronto as well as corporate taxes, sales taxes and any other fees due “like other companies.”

Therme will be required to pay minimum rent of 3.5 per cent of the assessed land value, which the province estimates will be $1.95 million in 2032. After six years of operation, Therme will pay Performance Rent when 2.45 per cent of its gross revenues exceed the minimum rent. That Performance Rent is estimated to be $2.07 million in 2034.

The Ford government expects to see almost $2 billion in revenue for the province over the life of the lease in rent payments and site-wide maintenance contributions. The facility is expected to contribute $128 million to Ontario’s economy and create 800 jobs once fully operational.

Further details of the new Ontario Place were revealed including a year-round modern music venue with a capacity of up to 20,000 in the summer – which is almost 4,000 more than the current seating capacity at Budweiser Stage.

There is also the repurposed Ontario Science Centre, which includes the Pods and Cinesphere, new multi-use trails that connect directly to the Martin Goodman Trail and seamlessly connect with Trillium Park

According to the lease, the public will have “unrestricted access to the waterfront at all times” while within the leased area, Therme has committed $200 million to build 16 acres of new, publicly accessible parkland, which is double the current size of the existing Trillium Park.

Therme is also promising a new public beach, a first-of-its-kind deep-water swimming pier, new community and Indigenous gathering spaces, an off-shore reef for aquatic habitat and a new public garden across from the West Island.

The Ford government continues to move ahead with its development plans on the West Island, cutting down a number of mature trees now that it is October and birds and bats are no longer in their nesting season. Mayor Olivia Chow called the move “really sad” but the government says it plans to replace all trees at a two-to-one ratio while mature trees would be replaced at a six-to-one ratio.

“The net effect of all this is 1,300 additional trees,” said Lindsay.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report