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Federal court judge Kevin Alto approved the sale of
rotting ship Captain John's for an undisclosed amount.
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Under terms of this latest court auction — the second
in a year — the ship must be removed by Toronto’s waterfront by the end of the
month, weather depending.
Ports Toronto refuses to disclose how much it is
paying a veteran scrapper to tow Captain John’s floating restaurant from the
foot of Yonge St. and cut it into tiny, rusting pieces, other than to stress it
won’t cost taxpayers a dime.
The costs of the complex tow by two specialized tugs
through the Welland Canal to Port Colborne — estimated by some marine experts
at well over $400,000 — are being shared by the federal port authority,
Waterfront Toronto and Cityzen Developments.
Waterfront Toronto, which gets most of its funding
from the three levels of government, said its share will come from the sale of
waterfront land.
Ports Toronto stressed that it is financially
self-sufficient through its port and island airport operations and that the bid
details are proprietary.
Cityzen, which couldn’t be reached for comment, is a
private development company which is building the waterfront Residences of Pier
27 condo complex immediately to the east of the rusting relic and had been
promised the ship would be gone last year. It’s launching sales soon for a new,
35-storey condo tower on the parking lot adjacent to Captain John’s.
Federal court justice Kevin Aalto approved a deal
Monday that will see the ship sail one last time — by May 26, weather willing —
tied to two massive tugs that will take it to the Port Colborne scrap yard of
Marine Recycling Corp.
Alto approved the sale — after a first auction last
summer ended in failure — after being warned that the aged ship, the Jadran, is
in “shocking” condition and has almost sunk twice in the last month.
“This is clearly a case that requires closure,” Aalto
said, adding that Marine Recycling’s bid was the most credible of four
proposals, two of them “negative bids” that will see waterfront officials pay,
rather than get paid, money.
The other was an offer from Priestly Demolition in
partnership with entrepreneur James Sbrolla to remove it for $250,000.
Source: the star.
11 May 2015
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