Mayor Rob Ford says the city-owned Metro Hall office building at John and King Sts. should be sold.

Ford made the comment while accepting a $10-million dividend cheque from Build Toronto, the city agency set up to develop and market city-owned real estate.

Outgoing Build Toronto president and chief executive officer Lorne Braithwaite said the city could downsize its use of space in the building, which houses city departments. In that way, the city could “realize some of the embedded value of a very strong real estate market.”

Ford, who presented the cheque to the city’s chief financial officer, said he liked that strategy. “We could downsize and find a cheaper building to put these employees in, less expensive,” the mayor said.

City council put the 27-storey building on the market in 2001 but rejected the best offer of $160 million, given that it cost $211 million to build ten years earlier.

Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother and a Build Toronto board member, said it was time to move.

“It’s a prime piece of property,” Doug Ford said. “The market is peaking right now. It should be sold.”