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“It’s money in, money out from our perspective and it’s not money we ever would have had without the availability of the program,” the mayor said, explaining how the CIP helped entice these developers to “put their whole foot in the water” when it comes to downtown investment.

“It’s amazing, it’s incredible,” Dilkens said. “When these happened, it’s just further proof that the CIP was the right thing to do.”

The three applications to the CIP are going to the city’s Planning, Heritage and Economic Development Standing Committee on May 14. Philip Fernandes of Philip Fernandes Designs, one of three local firms along with BK Cornerstone and Distinctive Homes, behind the Pelissier Street project, called the CIP program “extremely critical.” If approved by council, the development would get as much as $620,000 in grants, mostly from tax rebates.

“We can’t do the project without it,” Fernandez said.

SIND Investments, whose principal is Parkash Ramchandani, is behind the 120-unit tower at Victoria and Park, which would be the largest residential building to be built in the core in decades, and clearly fulfills one of the CIPs objectives to rejuvenate the downtown by getting more people to live there.

Staff are recommending $50,000 from the New Residential Grant Program which gives $2,500 for each new unit up to $50,000 and $15,000 from the Retail Investment Grant Program for the main floor commercial. But the big incentive is 10 years of grants that rebate the tax increase. The difference between the current tax on the parking lot ($6,027) and the new building ($191,434) amounts to $185,407 per year. And the grant will continue for 10 years instead of the normal five because it’s being classed as a catalyst project that will spur more development downtown. So the tax savings will add up to $1.85 million.