'Money doesn't wait around': Sudbury developer slams council for missed opportunity

A local property developer says Sudbury city council left him, and his dreams of downtown living, out in the cold.

Greg Oldenburg, owner of the Brewer Lofts on Lorne Street, was turned down by the city in his request to access funds from the Downtown Community Improvement Plan, or DCIP, to transform the old brewery into condominium units.

It was a $9.5 million request by Oldenburg, and eventually the steep price tag was what made council shy away from the project, said Ward 5 councillor Robert Kirwan.

"The biggest reason we couldn't support that business case was that we don't have that kind of money," Kirwan said. "It would have taken a 3.8 per cent tax increase just for that business case."

What's a DCIP, anyway?

The DCIP is a pool of funds set aside by the city to assist business owners with renovating or improving the facades of their properties.

Similar funds are available for other town centres, and have been used with some measure of success in the Donovan and Chelmsford, city planner Jason Ferrigan said.

Oldenburg said he complied with all the city's requests, studies and plans along the way before applying for the DCIP, investing one million dollars of his own money.

"Every step along the way I've spent money and money and money, and provide reports, provided all the answers, checked all the boxes, did everything that planning staff did," Oldenburg said.

"I feel like it's almost a shell game that I'm playing where at the end, the house has got the money and they're not fulfilling the very mandates they put in place."

Oldenburg said the funds would have supplemented the money he expected from a southern Ontario beverage company upon council's acceptance of the business case. He cited a confidentiality agreement as to why he couldn't reveal the name of the company, but said there were 40 full-time jobs on the table.

The city can say goodbye to that potential investment now, he said.

"Money doesn't wait around," Oldenburg said.

'No interest' in waiting around for another attempt for money

As for making another attempt to convince council of his plan's merits, Oldenburg said he wasn't holding out any hope.

"There's no interest in me sticking around for another year and waiting for the city to not make another decision," he said. "There's going to be a new council. There are going to be a variety of other things."

"I mean, this was the opportunity."