The $309 million the Liberals have sunk into the troubled MaRS Discovery District is just the beginning, critics warn.

“That’s only the ante into this game,” Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli said Tuesday after the government announced it was spending $65 million to buy out the building’s developer, Alexandria Real Estate (ARE).

“We’re talking about hundreds of millions more,” he predicted.

Combined with a $224 million loan to MaRS in 2011, $3.61 million in debt-service payments, and $16.2 million used to initially purchase the land, the government has so far committed $308.81 million to the research and development complex at the corner of College Street and University Avenue.

“It’s a bailout plain and simple,” said Fedeli, (Nipissing) who has long harboured concerns about the MaRS tower.

Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid said the government “wants to unlock the potential of the . . . building and ensure that the maximum return on our investment is realized.”

Despite being touted as an innovation hub to incubate new high-tech businesses, the second phase of MaRS, is only 31 per cent occupied — thanks in part to exorbitant rent rates.

To fill the remaining two thirds of the building, the province may move in bureaucrats, said Duguid.

“We’re not ruling anything out,” he said, adding that could include re-selling the building down the road.

But it remains unclear how much more taxpayers could be on the hook for with the MaRS complex.

“The Liberals insist they’re being open and transparent, but today the Liberals refused to come clean with the total costs, what they’ll do with the building, and how much of MaRS they’ve bought and own with public dollars,” said NDP MPP Catherine Fife (Kitchener-Waterloo).

Infrastructure Ontario president Bert Clark said the total $308.81 million investment is the fair market value of the building. There have been two appraisals of the tower: one from CRBE at $303.7 million; the other from Altus Group at $330.9 million.

At the government’s request, a two-person expert panel of Michael Nobrega, the former CEO of the OMERS pension plan and chair of the Ontario Centre of Excellence, and Carol Stephenson, former dean of the Ivey School of Business at Western University, looked at the real estate arrangement.

“This step will enable the government to have the flexibility it needs to realize the full potential of the MaRS district,” the two said in a joint statement.

Duguid said Nobrega and Stephenson would continue to voluntarily advise the government on a building many view as a white elephant.

“The key is maximizing our assets on behalf of taxpayers. The status quo at MaRS 2 simply isn’t working. There is a private-sector partner — they’re not a bad guy in this,” the minister said of ARE.

“They’re a private-sector partner that ran into some changes in the recession so we need to move ARE aside.”

During the June 12 election campaign, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals faced criticism after the Conservatives obtained leaked information about what was then just a proposed bailout of MaRS.

An analysis by the Star at the time found the cost could be as high as $477 million including improvement costs, operating shortfalls and other expenses.

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MaRS, a registered charity designed to foster research and innovation and research, was in danger of missing payments on the $224-million loan issued by the provincial government in 2011.

That loan was supposed to enable MaRS to finance construction of the new building and be paid back using rental income from tenants.

Tuesday’s move comes despite a projected budget deficit for 2014-15 of $12.5 billion.

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