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economist suntribune municipal matters thursday oct 24 2002 13 developer sues town for 16 million by kathleen griffin staff writer a former town employ eeturneddeveloper is suing markham for 16 million claiming the town reneged on an agreement to sell the stiver mill to his company for redevelop ment bob swayze the former town solicitor and a prin cipal of blue jay develop ments has been negotiat ing with the town and res idents at times bitterly for more than five years to buy and redevelop the historic unionville prop erty converting it to office space the suit comes after councils june decision to not extend blue jays option to purchase for another five months because it had already granted a yearlong exten sion in 2001 and little progress was made during that time blue jay was to have submitted a site plan and restoration proposals for the 1930s building con sidered to have several heritage features for town approval before the land was turned over despite the earlier extension it failed to do so in fact council heard blue jay did not commu nicate at all with town staff between august 2001 and april 2002 just weeks before the second dead line in a statement of claim filed with the ontario superior court of justice in toronto blue jay asserts it was ready to close the deal on aug 16 because the town did not respond the company claims it is owed 300000 for the loss of use and enjoyment of the lands until the site is turned over to the company or if the court does not agree that it is then entitled to 16 million for breach of con tract its not that he didnt know the law or know about how municipalities operate mr swayze declined comment when reached saying the matter was before the courts ward 3 councillor joe virgilio said council is confident the suit is easily defendable its not that he didnt know the law or know about how municipalities operate he said if anyone should know its bob we dont feel good about doing stuff like that and the mood of this council is if he had done what he was supposed to do everything would have been ok after the town declared the site surplus blue jay won a 1999 tender for the building and was success ful in a rezoning applica tion to permit among other things medical uses despite the fact resi dents had been consulted prior to the rezoning they decided they did not sup port medical uses after all and began lobbying coun cil to permit strictly office uses in june 2001 the town granted blue jay a one- year extension on its option to purchase the property at 9 station lane time to market the build ing and resolve several restoration issues with heritage markham mr swayze told coun cil in june blue jay had done some marketing but the heritage issues including a plan to demol ish the eastern portion of the building were not resolved because of mis- communication within fa rffl jbmffl qiswf wliwfr fffllfiflf wrap it up earlyand save i- j if joe virgilio town should have no problem defending itself his company we let him go on over two years and went through a lot of anguish councillor virgilio said councu denied the exten sion by an eighttofive vote richard talbot presi dent of the unionville villagers association noted developers looking at infill projects are usual ly eager to work with resi dents and town staff in order to obtain quick approval with minimum fuss developers usually like to move fast because time costs them money but they blue jay developments have had a cavalier attitude and have been footdragging all along he said we thought the town had gone out of its way to dot every i and cross every t in this deal but im not 100 per cent surprised by this he is after all a lawyer correction notice the brick please be advised of an error in our do not pay until 2004 flyer in effect from october 24 through october 30 2002 on the left hand inside foldout page in the ge section the ge deluxe ceran smoothtop stainlesssteel range is pictured and described a an incorrect price the price displayed is for the white and black versions the stainless steel version should actually priced at 109995 after rebate 114995 less a 50 mailin rebate for a total savings of 200 a tremendous value we sincerely apologize lor any inconvenience this error has caused w correction notice w we wish to draw your attention to the following in our current canadian tire flyer page 34 gascharged struts and cartridges 220700x2100x copy reads reg from 1888 sale from 1699 save 10 should read reg from 4631 sale from 4168 save 10 page 34 gascharged shocks 220800x2260x 3938x copy reads reg from 4631 sale from 4168 save 10 should read reg from 1888 sale from 1699 save 10 we sincerely regret any inconvenience we may have caused you aii zones 4 mm w sh entcitoining fssovcrpemonbtrauon newmarket master j newmarkei pam martin ive colours fashions aurora v lsss3 los from q mirkhoddertransfoi colours ssgssssss and team how 1 ssss doob prizes j early bird rafflcdravv m i v- 7t2002 at 500 p i itirill gggf nvv 4 u xl- 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