The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) appears poised to get council approval to build a new $300 million, 310,000-square-foot art gallery on a 1.8-acre downtown city block bounded by Cambie, Dunsmuir, Beatty and West Georgia streets.
City manager Penny Ballem released a staff report earlier this week that recommends that council authorize staff to negotiate a memorandum of understanding on a 99-year lease for "nominal gross rent in lieu of taxes."
A council vote is expected to take place April 23.
Mayor Gregor Robertson this week tweeted his unequivocal support for the project: "Yes I support a new #Vancouver Art Gallery at Georgia/Cambie. Urging council to support."
That support is likely to go far with Robertson's Vision Vancouver colleagues. Non Partisan Association councillor George Affleck told Business in Vancouver more than a month ago that he tentatively supports the concept of providing a new space for VAG.
This comes despite stiff opposition from critics such as art collector and Rennie Marketing Systems principal Bob Rennie, as well as demographer and Urban Futures senior adviser David Baxter.
Rennie has told BIV that if the city donates the site or charges the gallery a token $1 per year for the lease, the city will essentially be giving VAG the equivalent of a $200 million donation.
That would be the cost of the land, taxes and forgone community amenity contributions, he said.
Ballem's recommendation is that the city approval be contingent on VAG securing a $100 million funding commitment from the federal government and a $50 million commitment from the provincial government before April 30, 2015.
VAG director Kathleen Bartels is confident that if the city donates the land, VAG will be able to raise the remaining $206 million needed to build the facility.
VAG officials have yet to start raising funds for the new facility but they already have approximately $93.7 million in contributions and pledges.
"The province gave $50 million, and we've had interest accumulate on that," Bartels told BIV last month. "We've also had other individuals step forward to add to that fund. Then there are nearly $40 million in private pledges that are based on site confirmation."
