A third company is making a play for the TTC’s 65 subway newsstands, further complicating the lease extension the commission granted to the operator of the system’s Gateway stores.

The TTC board has been criticized for failing to put the newsstand lease up for tender and has ordered a third-party review of the matter, to come before the commission on Feb. 25.

Don Vautour, president of New York News Café, said he expects his company’s offer will be better than the $48 million unsolicited proposal the TTC accepted from Tobmar Investments International, which runs the Gateway stores.

It will also exceed an unconditional offer submitted last week by International News, he said.

Vautour, who has worked for both his competitors, wouldn’t provide details of his offer, saying it was still coming together Monday.

He confirmed he wrote TTC staff in November presenting his company as a serious candidate for the subway stores. Vautour wrote the letter after hearing Tobmar’s lease was being extended.

But he only sent it to city councillors, including TTC chair Karen Stintz, last week.

Vautour didn’t hear from the TTC until Friday, after he did a TV interview. Fifteen minutes after the broadcast, he said, the TTC emailed, inviting him to submit his proposal for the review.

“That was Friday at 4 p.m. and I have to have a $50-million proposal prepared for Tuesday at 12 p.m. Really, it’s ridiculous that I would have one day to prepare,” he said. “I have to get this in because I feel it is right to put in our offer, but it’s a big deal.”

New York News has six locations in Toronto and Niagara, and expects to open more in the Toronto area.

Vautour described the lease situation as “kind of a mess.” He said he has been in email contact with Mayor Rob Ford’s office and has spoken to the mayor’s brother, Councillor Doug Ford. They have been critical of Stintz for what they call sole-sourcing the newsstand leases.

“For sure they’re backing me,” Vautour said Monday.

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Stintz has stood by the commission’s decision to extend Tobmar’s lease on the Gateway stores, saying the 67-per-cent rent increase it offered to prolong its lease 10 years beyond the 2014 expiry date was good for the TTC and for taxpayers.

If the TTC decides to forgo the lease extension in favour of competing bids, that wouldn’t happen until next year, Stintz has said.

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