CNE wants city to reject Muzik lease extension
Executive committee to consider extending Muzik's lease at Exhibition Place. Long-term tenant CNE is against the proposal.

thestar.com
Sept. 19, 2015
By Betsy Powell

The Canadian National Exhibition is asking the city to turn down its landlord’s request to extend controversial nightclub Muzik’s lease from 2024 to 2034.

The Exhibition Place Board of Governors’ request for an amendment to the city’s official plan is on Monday’s executive committee agenda.

“There’s a better path to use city assets that are so important to Toronto,” CNE President Brian Ashton said Friday.

With the city’s westward population growth, Exhibition Place has become “a jewel that you’ve got to protect and keep as open and publicly accessible as possible,” he said.

“Is there a cost associated with that? Yes there is, but any great city will ante up to protect this type of property on a magnificent waterfront. Other cities...would drool over having this type of property.”

The Horticulture Building, which has housed Muzik since 2004, the Ontario Government Building (Liberty Grand) and the Arts, Crafts & Hobbies Building (Medieval Times) and surrounding parkland have a Parks/Open Space designation under the city’s official plan that doesn’t allow for a lease term longer than 21 years.

On Sept. 4, the Exhibition Place board voted to ask council to amend the official plan to permit terms longer than 21 years. Muzik wants the extra time to recoup the $5 million it has invested in the property to build swimming pools and cabanas on the outdoor patio area.

Others would like the business shut down, after two fatal shootings of Muzik patrons this summer.

Ashton also questions whether Muzik is the best fit for the 108-year-old heritage property, “which today looks more like a correctional facility with all the fencing around it.”

Before granting the extension, the city should, at the very least, put out a request for proposals, the former city councillor says.

The CNE, which has operated on the grounds since 1897, might, for example, be interested in reoccupying the building, or maybe it could the home to a much-discussed Toronto museum, he says.

Local resident groups are also asking the executive committee to turn down the request, to preserve “much-needed open space,” reads an email from representatives of the Parkdale Residents Association and Ossington Community Association.

“Under the problematic direction of the Exhibition Board of Governors, the city is in grave danger of losing much of this valuable amenity for future generations,” the email says.

If the executive committee approves the Exhibition Place board’s request, the matter will go before council at its meeting at the end of the month.