Hosting Expo 2025 in Toronto will cost $1.9 billion, according to consultants paid for by the private sector interested in hosting the world fair.

“We’ve come together because we share a passionate belief that Toronto, Ontario and Canada should launch a bid to host Expo 2025, “Claire Hopkinson, CEO of the Toronto Arts Council and co-chair of Expo Canada’s steering committee, told a press conference at city hall on Friday.

She was joined by several business leaders, including Nicholas Thadaney, president and CEO of Global Equity Capital Markets, TMX Group.

Hopkinson called the report an “extraordinarily good news story,” claiming Expo would result in a $4.37 billion boost in the national GDP and $1.26 billion in tax revenues.

But the cost does not include the nearly $1 billion required to make the Port Lands in the city’s east end developable, including flood protecting the area, or needed investment in transit infrastructure like a waterfront LRT line or GO Station at the former Unilever site — both which have yet to be funded.

And with more than $30 billion in approved but unfunded capital projects already on the city’s books — including rebuilding the Gardiner Expressway and a subway relief line — it is unclear how the additional $1.9 billion needed to host the world fair would be found.

Council has not yet voted on whether to bid for Expo, a dream thought dead in 2014 when a city committee shelved a previous feasibility report by Ernst & Young. But this June, council agreed to accept the privately-paid-for Pricewaterhouse Coopers study.

It was funded by developer Ken Tanenbaum, who is leading the Expo Canada bid corporation, and a group of “prominent businesspeople,” according to a release.

Tanenbaum’s Kilmer Group was part of the development partnership that was contracted using public funds to construct the more than $700-million Pan Am Athlete’s Village, of which 800 units were sold at market value as condos in the new Canary District.

Only the highlights of the study were released on Friday. The full study will be available next week with comments and analysis from city staff. It will be considered at Mayor John Tory’s executive committee on Oct. 26.

Tory, who was not at city hall on Friday, earlier urged a “sober, steady, responsible businesslike approach,” to assessing the benefits of hosting Expo.

A potential bid faces several roadblocks.

In June, council voted that any Expo bid “be contingent” on the federal and provincial governments funding the fair separately and in addition to their commitments to fund transit, housing and other infrastructure needs.

Those governments have made no such promises.

The Star asked spokespeople for both Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi and the premier’s office if they would be prepared to fund Expo above and beyond current funding commitments, but neither responded by deadline.

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, who has been pushing a bid at city hall, said they group backing an Expo in Toronto hope it could be a “catalyst” and an “accelerator” for needed Port Lands revitalization.

“I think that one thing we can agree on is that Expo will come at a cost that will have to be borne and shared by all three levels of government,” she said. “At this moment in time, I think the federal government has said there’s a finite pot of money . . . How we prioritize those investments at council we will have to do so with the cooperation and the collaboration of the three orders of government.”

Hosting Expo also relies on the Port Lands being developable.

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Last year, Waterfront Toronto reported that naturalizing the mouth of the Don River to unlock waterfront lands, flood protecting that area and cleaning up contaminated soil would cost an estimated $975 million.

An updated figure is expected when a due diligence report is completed, Waterfront Toronto spokesperson Andrew Hilton said in an email.

The tri-government organization earlier reported then that the work could begin in 2017 and would take seven years to complete — putting the timeline for completion in 2024.

That would leave little time for Expo organizers to build out the infrastructure for the world fair, what in other cities has included massive pavilions and art projects.

The 2017 start is contingent on funding being in place. While the federal and provincial governments have come forward with some money to study and initiate work on the Port Lands, the hundreds of millions needed to carry out that project have not yet been secured.

In order to bid, a national government must put a city’s name forward, according to the Bureau International des Exposition (BIE), the Paris-based organization that oversees and regulates Expos.

Canada is currently not a member of the BIE, after the Harper government decided not to renew the country’s involvement. Any member states would be given preference to bid. Even if there is no bid from a member state, Canada would need a two-third majority to win the right to host Expo, a BIE spokesperson said by email.

“However it is highly unlikely that there would be no bids from a BIE Member State for World Expo 2025,” Antoine Bourdeix wrote in an email.

Manchester, Paris and Osaka have all expressed interest in bidding for Expo 2025, but none have submitted a bid yet. A host city is expected to be chosen in 2018.

In previous host cities, Expo has drawn criticism for wasting public funds.

Total costs for Milan Expo 2015 were estimated at more than $18 billion in Canadian dollars, according to The Guardian newspaper, and saw construction delays and accusations of corruption.