A rendering of the proposed apartment towers at 391 South St. Photo courtesy of the City of London.A rendering of the proposed apartment towers at 391 South St. Photo courtesy of the City of London.
London

Developer Seeks $4.3M For South St. Clean Up

The redevelopment of the Old Victoria Hospital lands has a Toronto-based developer looking to city hall for $4.3-million to help cover the clean up cost of contaminated soil at the site.

Medallion Realty Holdings' request for brownfield incentives goes to the planning committee next week. The money being sought isn't in the form of cash but in development rebates and tax increment equivalent grants.

An environmental assessment conducted on the property at 391 South St. last year found several contaminants including heavy metals, salt, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls. The pollutants are remnants of the time when the site was home to the hospital.

Removal of the 48,000 tonnes of contaminated soil is estimated to cost more than $3.7-million. The rest of the costs would go toward boundary soil retention, groundwater treatment, and environmental and review consultants.

Clean up at the SoHo site is one of the purchase agreement conditions for Medallion to buy the property from the city. The developer plans to construct 620 new residential units in two apartment towers while also conserving the existing Colborne Building on the land.

According to a staff report, the development would support ongoing revitalization of the SoHo neighbourhood and the Old Victoria Hospital lands and generate an estimated $2.1-million a year in municipal taxes once completed.

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