From today's Toronto Sun:

Union Station deal collapses
JENNIFER LEWINGTON CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

The city's $150-million deal to refurbish Union Station, dogged by
controversy during the past five years, is dead.

The deal's collapse, announced yesterday by the city and its
private-sector partner in separate press releases, is occurring just
weeks before the two sides were to wrap up the last details of the
agreement by May 31 -- a deadline imposed by council last year.

Mayor David Miller, while expressing regret, told reporters late
yesterday he is not prepared to ask council to grant another extension
to get the project back on the rails. Such a request would need the
support of two-thirds of council's 44 members.

"I don't think an extension is really going to solve the problem," he
said.

"It is regrettable, but it is time for us to move on."

In theory, the two sides still have until May 31 to pull a political
rabbit out of the hat to save the 100-year lease agreement.

But neither city officials nor a spokesman for Union Pearson Group, the
six-member consortium selected by the city in 2003 to refurbish Union
Station, held out any real hope.

"We just ran out of time," Union Pearson spokesman Ron Taylor said. He
said the consortium's investors and lenders need time to reach a range
of agreements -- still under negotiation -- between the city and
others.

For example, the city needs to complete a lease agreement with GO
Transit and Via Rail, both major tenants of Union Station, a 1920s-era
heritage building and the most important passenger rail transportation
hub in the country.

In addition, the city still does not have an agreement with the federal
government on the makeup of a new public-sector agency to oversee the
proposed renewal of the building.

The revitalization of Union Station was predicated on expanded capacity
for transit commuters and a refurbishment of the building's interior to
make it a new shopping and entertainment destination linking downtown
Toronto to the waterfront.

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