Ken Nakagama, who owns a business on 3 Street and 2 Avenue South, isn¹t thrilled by what the city settled for in the property sale for the vacant lot in front of his business.

Dave Mabell
LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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New investment in downtown construction is welcome. But Lethbridge business people say after 10 years of waiting, they expected something more substantial than a two-storey building on the city-owned block of 1 Avenue South property.
Business leaders raised their concerns Tuesday, a day after city council approved sale of the key downtown location for less than it paid a decade ago. They also voiced disappointment their downtown business groups were kept in the dark about the process, after council dashed a community organization's hopes late last year.
"We were bypassed totally," said John Gerlock, chair of the Downtown Lethbridge business revitalization zone. "We had no role in the process."
Speaking as a business owner, Gerlock said he agreed with Ald. Joe Mauro's request that council honour a resolution passed in 2001 - when the property was bought and the buildings levelled at a cost of about $2.9 million. When approving its purchase, Mauro said, council promised to hold a public hearing before selling the land for anything less.
"They're selling the land for nearly $1 million less than they invested in it," taking into account property taxes lost and the increasing value of the money spent. And the buyers' only building commitment, he noted, is for a pair of two-storey office structures on 2 Avenue South.
If the city couldn't find anyone with a significant project after all those years, he added, council should have considered using the land as the site for a convention centre.
"We sure need one."
Instead, council voted Monday to sell the entire block - minus the site of the demolished Chinese National Building - for $2,003,500 to a local law firm and an accounting company.
Ald. Faron Ellis, who presented the motion to sell, argued against a tabling motion from Mauro along with council members Jeff Coffman and Bridget Mearns. Their bid for a public hearing was nothing more than "a stalling tactic," he said.
If there's a better alternative, Ellis said, "Nobody's come up with it."
Council split 6-3 on the motion, with Mayor Rajko Dodic voting in favour.
Gerlock questioned whether the mayor, as a lawyer in good standing, should have spoken or voted on an issueinvolving other members of the province's law society. But he congratulated the lawyers who closed the sale.
"It's a very lucrative deal for them," he said. "My hat's off to them."
Across the street from one of the proposed office buildings, store owner Ken Nakagama admitted his disappointment over council's decision. As a past chair of the Heart of the City planning group, he said its members had expected to see something more substantial built on the city's only readily available downtown block.
"I was hoping the property could have been used for something more significant for the downtown and the community as a whole," he said. "It's an opportunity lost."
Nakagama said he's not unhappy about the people buying the property, the Volution accounting group and the Stringam Denecky law office. Recognizing architect Robert Hirano's work, he's not concerned about the appearance of the building planned across 2 Avenue from his food store.
"I'm hoping the historic face of Chinatown might be kept."
Bev Lanz, the Heart of the City's current chair, said Tuesday the group would have liked to facilitate a public hearing if council had permitted citizen response.
Members have heard a number of development proposals over recent years, she said. But the group wasn't asked for comment on this one.
While a "master plan" has been prepared as part of the Heart of the City process, Lanz said city council still has final say on the sale of city-owned land.
As director of the BRZ and co-ordinator of the Main Street Project, Ted Stilson has heard many of those proposals as well. One of the most recent, submitted by the Lethbridge Family Circle Association, was for a comprehensive hotel/retail/office development that also included market-priced and low-income housing.
If city council wanted to do something innovative with its land, he said, it could have offered the site to the local association as part of a public-private enterprise. The mayor confirmed that option during council's debate Monday, he pointed out.
The group's "family village" concept would have included client space for many local organizations, Stilson noted. When the group outlined its progress during a presentation last fall, however, council indicated it wasn't willing to wait long.
"It was a great idea," but the citizen group working on it wasn't able to secure financing in time.
Earlier proposals also included ideas for a large, innovative "anchor" for the city centre.
"But the reality is, they never happened," Stilson said. "This is the first good proposal" where the buyer is ready to proceed.